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HARPER  &  BROTHERS,  PUBLISHERS,  NEW  YORK 


NEW  LEAF   MILLS 


B  Cbconicle 


W.      D.      HOWELLS 


HARPER   6-   BROTHERS    PUBLISHERS 

NEW  YORK   AND   LONDON 

M  C  MXI  I  I 


COPYRIGHT.    1913.    BY    HARPER    &    BROTHERS 

PRINTED    IN    THE    UNITED   STATES   OF   AMERICA 

PUBLISHED   JANUARY.    1913 


M-M 


NEW  LEAF  MILLS:  A  CHRONICLE 


260074 


NEW  LEAF  MILLS:  A  CHRONICLE 


THE  opinions  of  Owen  Powell  marked  a  sharp  dif 
ference  between  him  and  most  of  his  fellow-townsmen 
in  the  town  of  the  Middle  West,  where  he  lived  sixty 
years  ago.  A  man  who  condemned  the  recent  war  upon 
Mexico  as  a  wicked  crusade  for  the  extension  of  slavery, 
and  denounced  the  newly  enacted  Fugitive  Slave  Law 
as  infernal,  would  have  done  well  to  have  a  confession 
of  spiritual  faith  like  that  of  his  neighbors;  but  here 
Owen  Powell  was  still  more  widely  at  variance  with 
them.  He  rejected  the  notion  of  a  personal  devil,  and 
many  others  did  that;  but  his  hell  was  wholly  at  odds 
with  the  hell  popularly  accepted ;  it  was  not  a  place  of 
torment  where  the  lost  sinner  was  sent,  but  a  state 
which  the  transgressor  himself  chose  and  where  he 
abode  everlastingly  bereft  of  the  sense  of  better  things. 
Even  so  poor  a  hell  saved  Powell  from  the  reproach 
of  Universalism ;  but  in  a  person  so  one-ideaed,  as  peo 
ple  then  said,  through  his  abhorrence  of  slavery,  it  was 
not  enough.  He  was  valued,  but  he  was  valued  in  spite 
of  his  opinions;  they  were  distinctly  a  fact  to  his  dis 
advantage  in  that  day  and  place. 

His  younger  brother  Felix,  after  the  wont  of  prosper 
ous  merchants,  kept  out  of  politics,  and  he  carried  his 
prayer-book  every  Sunday  to  the  Episcopal  service. 


:NEW    LEAF    MILLS 

But  he  quietly  voted  with  Owen,  and  those  who  counted 
on  a  want  of  sympathy  between  the  brothers  were  apt 
to  meet  with  a  prompt  rebuff  from  Felix.  He  once 
stopped  his  subscription  and  took  away  his  advertising 
from  the  Whig  editor  who  spoke  of  a  certain  political 
expression  of  Owen's  (it  was  in  a  letter  to  the  editor's 
paper)  as  having  the  unimportance  of  small  potatoes, 
and  he  extorted  a  printed  retractation  of  the  insult 
before  he  renewed  his  patronage.  He  felt,  more  than 
any  of  his  words  or  acts  evinced,  the  beauty  of  the  large 
benevolent  intention  which  was  the  basis  of  Owen's 
character,  and  he  was  charmed,  if  he  was  not  con 
vinced,  by  his  inextinguishable  faith  in  mankind  as  a 
race  merely  needing  good  treatment  to  become  every 
thing  that  its  friends  could  wish;  by  his  simple  cour 
age,  so  entire  that  he  never  believed  in  danger;  and 
by  his  sweet  serenity  of  temperament.  Felix  was  in 
delicate  health,  and  he  was  given  to  some  vague  super 
stitions.  He  had  lost  several  children,  and  he  believed 
that  he  had  in  every  case  had  some  preternatural  warn 
ing  of  their  death ;  his  young  wife,  who  was  less  openly 
an  invalid,  shared  his  beliefs,  as  well  as  his  half-mel 
ancholy  fondness  for  his  brother.  She  liked  to  have 
Owen  Powell's  children  in  her  childless  house;  and 
she  had  some  pretty  affectations  of  manner  and  accent 
which  took  them  with  the  sense  of  elegance  in  a  world 
beyond  them. 

They  came  to  her  with  their  mother  every  Sunday 
night,  and  heard  their  father  and  uncle  talk  of  their 
boyhood  in  the  backwoods ;  of  their  life  in  a  log  cabin, 
and  of  the  privations  they  had  gladly  suffered  there. 
The  passing  years  had  endeared  these  hardships  to 
the  brothers,  but  their  wives  resented  the  early  poverty 
which  they  held  precious;  and  they  hated  the  memory 
of  that  farm  where  the  brothers  had  lived  in  a  log 

2 


NEW    LEAF    MILLS 

cabin,  and  had  run  wild,  as  it  appeared  from  the  fond 
exaggeration  of  their  reminiscences,  in  bare  feet,  tat 
tered  trousers,  and  hickory  shirts.  Sometimes  the 
brothers  reasoned  of  the  questions  of  theology  upon 
which  the  mind  of  the  elder  habitually  dwelt;  but 
Felix  disliked  argument,  and  Owen  affectionately  fore- 
bore  to  assail  him  as  a  representative  of  the  Old  Church. 
After  the  pioneer  stories,  the  children  fell  asleep  on 
the  sofa  and  the  carpet,  and  did  not  wake  till  they 
heard  the  piano,  where  their  young  aunt  used  to  sing 
and  their  uncle  accompany  her  with  his  flute;  he  re 
mained  associated  in  their  memories  with  the  pensive 
trebles  of  his  instrument  and  the  cadences  of  her  gentle 
voice. 

There  came  a  time  when  the  summer  days  were 
clouded  in  their  home  by  an  increasing  care,  which 
they  felt  at  second  hand  from  their  father  and  mother ; 
then  there  came  a  Sunday  night  when  there  were  no 
rosy  visions  of  the  past ;  and,  by  the  matter-of-fact  light 
of  the  Monday  following,  Felix  saw  that  the  affairs  of 
his  brother  were  hopeless.  Owen's  book  and  drug  store 
had  never  been  a  flourishing  business,  and  now  it  had 
gone  from  bad  to  worse  beyond  retrieval.  On  the 
afternoon  of  the  morning  when  the  store  was  not 
opened  he  walked  with  his  boys  a  long  way  into  the 
country.  It  was  very  sultry,  and  he  repeated  a  de 
scription  of  summer  from  Thompson's  Seasons.  As 
they  returned  along  the  river-shore  he  pointed  out  the 
lovely  iridescence  of  the  mussel-shells  which  he  picked 
up,  and  geologized  in  passing  on  the  stratification  of  the 
rocks  in  the  bank. 

An  interval  of  suspense  followed  this  stressful  time, 
which  their  young  memories  took  little  note  of.  On 
the  Sunday  evenings  at  their  uncle's  the  talk  seemed 

to  the  children  to  be  all  of  a  plan  for  going  to  live 

3 


NEW    LEAF    MILLS 

in  the  country.  Apparently  there  was  to  be  a  prop 
erty  which  the  brothers  were  to  hold  in  common,  and 
it  was  to  be  bought  as  soon  as  the  younger  could  get 
his  business  into  shape.  Two  brothers  in  other  towns 
were  to  be  invited  to  close  up  their  affairs  and  join 
in  the  enterprise.  Then,  with  something  of  the  un 
surprising  inconsequence  of  dreams,  the  notion  of  a 
farm  had  changed  in  the  children's  apprehension  to 
the  notion  of  a  mill,  and  more  dimly  a  settlement  of 
communal  proportions  about  it.  They  heard  their 
elders  discussing  the  project  one  night  when  they  woke 
from  their  nap,  and  crowded  about  their  mother's  chair 
for  warmth,  with  the  fire  now  burning  low  upon  the 
hearth. 

"  The  best  plan,"  their  uncle  said,  "  will  be  to  find 
a  mill  privilege  with  the  buildings  already  on  it.  We 
could  take  out  the  burrs,"  which  the  boys  understood 
later  were  millstones,  "  and  put  in  paper  machinery. 
When  we  were  once  settled  there  we  could  ask  people 
that  we  found  adapted  to  join  us,  but  at  first  it  would 
have  to  be  a  purely  family  concern." 

"  Yes,"  their  father  said.  "  One  condition  of  our 
being  able  to  do  any  good  from  the  start  would  be  our 
unquestionable  hold  of  the  management.  That  would 
be  the  only  orderly  method.  I  would  give  all  hands  a 
share  in  the  profits,  so  as  to  interest  and  attach  them, 
but  till  they  were  educated  up  to  our  ideas  they  oughtn't 
to  be  allowed  any  control." 

Felix  cleared  his  throat  by  a  husky  effort  habitual 
with  him  before  speaking  again.  "  We  could  indirectly 
benefit  them  from  the  beginning  enough  to  satisfy  any 
reasonable  expectation." 

After  that  it  might  have  been  weeks  before  the  enter 
prise  took  clearer  shape.  From  time  to  time  the  chil 
dren  forgot  it;  they  played  through  the  long  summer 

4 


NEW    LEAF    MILLS 

vacation;  but  when  the  first  keen  mornings  of  the  au 
tumn  came,  and  the  neighbors'  children  went  by  with 
their  books,  they  did  not  return  to  school.  The  privi 
lege,  with  a  grist-mill  and  sawmill  on  it,  had  been 
found  and  bought,  they  did  not  know  where,  any  more 
than  how,  but  it  was  ten  or  twelve  miles  from  the  town 
in  another  county.  Their  father  and  mother  had 
driven  out  with  their  aunt  and  uncle  to  look  at  it; 
their  uncle  had  taken  his  gun,  and  he  brought  back 
some  squirrels  in  the  bottom  of  his  carriage;  he  said 
that  he  had  almost  got  a  shot  at  a  wild  turkey.  With 
such  facts  before  them  Owen's  boys  could  not  under 
stand  why  their  mother  should  be  low-spirited  about 
going  to  live  at  the  mills.  They  heard  their  father 
talking  with  her  after  they  went  to  bed,  and  she  said: 
"  But  all  that  wildness  makes  my  heart  sink.  I  had 
enough  of  that  when  I  was  a  girl,  Owen.  You  know 
I  never  liked  the  country  to  live  in." 

"  I  know,  I  know.  But  we  shall  soon  have  quite 
a  village  about  us.  At  any  rate,  we  shall  have  a  chance 
to  begin  life  again." 

"  Oh  yes.    But  it's  beginning  so  far  back." 

In  the  morning  she  was  cheerfuler,  and  their  father 
told  the  children  that  they  were  to  move  out  to  the 
mills  at  once,  and  that  he  was  to  have  charge  of  the 
property  till  the  paper  machinery  could  be  put  into 
the  grist-mill.  At  the  sawmill  he  was  to  get  out  the 
stuff  for  a  new  house  that  was  to  be  built;  but  their 
hearts  leaped  when  he  told  them  that  they  were  to  live 
that  winter  in  a  log  cabin. 

It  was  Sunday,  and  the  night  was  the  last  they  spent 
at  their  uncle's  in  the  old  way.  It  was  not  quite  the 
old  way,  though.  The  piano  was  not  opened,  and  the 
flute  lay  shut  in  its  case.  The  brothers  went  over 
their  plans,  and  they  spoke  of  whom  they  might  invite 


NEW    LEAF    MILLS 

to  join  them  after  their  success  became  apparent.  It 
seemed  that  they  meant  to  be  careful,  and  ask  only 
those  who  could  take  up  the  enterprise  in  an  enlightened 
spirit.  Owen  Powell  believed  that  a  responsive  feeling 
would  be  awakened  in  the  neighbors  when  they  saw 
that  the  new-comers  did  not  wish  merely  to  make  money 
for  themselves,  but  to  benefit  all  by  improvements  that 
would  increase  the  price  of  their  land  and  give  employ 
ment  to  their  children. 

Felix  listened  with  his  melancholy  smile,  absently 
rolling  his  cigar  between  his  thumb  and  finger.  "  What 
shall  we  call  the  place  ?"  he  asked. 

"  I  don't  know/'  Owen  said.  "  Something  that 
would  imply  our  purpose  of  turning  over  quite  a 
new  leaf." 

They  talked  further  of  the  details  of  their  under 
taking,  and  the  children  went  on  with  their  play.  They 
were  dramatizing  their  arrival  at  the  mills,  and  one 
of  them  was  shouting  to  a  supposed  inhabitant,  "  Is 
this  place  New  Leaf  Mills  ?" 

"  Hey  ?  Hey  ?"  their  uncle  called  to  them.  "  What's 
that?" 

"  We're  just  playing,"  they  explained. 

"  New  Leaf — New  Leaf  Mills,"  he  repeated,  musing 
ly.  "  That  wouldn't  be  bad.  What  made  you  think 
of  that  name  ?"  He  bent  a  sidelong  glance  on  the  con 
scious  group. 

The  eldest  of  the  boys  ventured,  "  Why,  father  said 
you  would  turn  over  a  new  leaf  at  the  mills,  and  we 
just  called  them  that." 

"  Yes,  yes !  Very  good,"  he  said.  "  Do  you  hear 
that,  Owen?  We've  got  a  name  for  our  place.  We 
can  stencil  it  on  our  flour-barrels  now,  and  when  we 
get  in  our  paper  machinery  we  can  make  it  our  water 
mark." 


II 


THE  leaves  were  falling  from  the  maples  along  the 
road,  but  they  still  hung  brown  and  harsh  on  the 
sycamores  that  fringed  the  island  between  the  tail-race 
and  the  river  when  Owen  Powell  and  two  of  his  boys 
passed  the  groaning  and  whistling  mill  and  stopped 
with  their  wagon  at  the  door  of  the  old  cabin.  It  was 
empty,  but  the  door  yielded  to  the  hand  that  drew  the 
leathern  latch-string  and  lifted  the  rude  wooden  latch, 
and  Powell  made  his  boys  note  that  this  was  a  genuine 
log  cabin,  such  as  the  pioneers  of  old  dwelt  in,  and  just 
such  as  he  had  himself  lived  in  when  a  boy.  He  said 
that  the  string  might  have  hung  out  of  the  cabin  door 
of  Daniel  Boone;  within,  the  ladder  that  climbed  to 
the  loft  from  a  corner  of  the  room  could  have  led  to 
the  sleep  that  came  from  being  chased  by  Indians; 
the  hearth,  *that  stretched  half  across  the  end  of  the 
cabin,  was  of  the  right  backwoods  dimensions;  he  ex 
cused  the  ax-hewn  whitewashed  walls  as  the  sophistica 
tion  of  an  age  which  had  outgrown  the  round  logs, 
chinked  with  moss  and  daubed  with  clay,  of  the  true 
primitive  architecture. 

When  he  went  back  to  the  wagon  to  get  their  tools 
and  provisions  after  the  first  moments  of  rejoicing, 
he  dispersed  the  cows  and  pigs  surrounding  it  as  gently 
as  if  they  had  been  a  deputation  from  the  neighbors 
who  hung  about  the  door  of  the  mill  and  viewed  with 
sardonic  amusement  the  sole  greeting  offered  the  new- 


NEW    LEAF    MILLS 

comers.  They  waited  in  silence  till  the  Powells  had 
gone  into  the  cabin  again,  but  they  shouted  together 
in  laughter  when  the  miller  appeared  at  an  upper  door 
and  launched  a  curse  at  the  cabin  walls.  They  tried 
to  provoke  him  to  greater  bitterness  as  he  rested  his 
weight  by  one  hand  upon  the  rope  that  lowered  the 
bags  of  flour  to  the  backs  of  their  horses;  then  one 
after  another  they  mounted  upon  the  balanced  load 
and  jogged  away  from  the  mill. 

Powell  was  glad  to  find  that  his  hand  had  not  for 
gotten  the  cunning  of  one  of  the  several  crafts  to  which 
he  had  turned  it  in  his  early  life  when  he  came  to 
glaze  the  broken  panes  in  the  small,  weather-worn 
sashes  of  the  four  windows  lighting  the  two  rooms 
of  the  cabin ;  he  had  to  replace  the  rotten  flooring  with 
smooth-sawn  boards  of  poplar  instead  of  the  riven  oak 
puncheons  of  pioneer  times,  but  he  was  consoled  to  find 
that  the  floor  of  the  garret  could  best  be  mended  by 
throwing  loose  planks  over  its  cracks  and  knot-holes. 
After  their  day's  work  was  done  he  strolled  out  with 
his  boys  to  explore  the  region  in  which  he  hoped  to 
found  a  new  home.  From  the  road  that  crossed  the 
tail-race  below  the  grist-mill  and  crept  eastward  into 
the  woods  rose  an  isolated  hill  to  a  height  notable  in 
that  country  of  broad  bottom-lands.  It  was  steep  on 
the  north,  next  to  the  mill ;  it  sloped  more  gently  away 
toward  the  south,  but  on  the  east  and  west  it  was  steep 
again.  It  was  thickly  wooded  with  broad-girthed  oaks, 
slim  maples  and  ashes,  and  a  host  of  shag-bark  hickories 
hanging  full  of  the  nuts  that  now  shone  white  through 
the  gaping  seams  of  their  greenish-brown  husks,  and 
dropped  about  the  feet  of  the  Powells  as  they  climbed 
upward  through  the  fallen  leaves.  A  company  of  pigs 
feeding  on  the  mast  under  the  trees  lifted  their  heads 
at  the  approaching  steps  with  looks  of  impudent  de- 


NEW    LEAF    MILLS 

fiance;  then  they  hooted  in  alarm  and  ran  down  the 
sides  of  the  hill,  just  as  they  did  in  the  passage  which 
Powell  remembered  from  Bloomfield's  poem  of  "  The 
Farmer  Boy."  A  covey  of  quails  throbbed  away  from 
a  pile  of  brush ;  a  squirrel  clattered  up  the  shaggy  side 
of  one  of  the  hickories.  The  simple  incidents  touched 
his  heart  as  he  climbed  to  the  top  of  the  hill  and  looked 
out  upon  the  peaceful  landscape.  Below  was  the  huge 
grist-mill,  gray  and  weather-beaten,  but  strong  as  when 
first  built;  a  wall  of  primeval  forest  lowered  the  east 
ern  horizon,  but  north  and  south  the  woods  retreated 
and  left  the  interval  yellow  with  a  hundred  acres  of 
standing  corn,  and  green  with  broad  spaces  of  meadow- 
land.  The  straight  ribbon  of  the  head-race  stretched 
to  the  full  dam  of  New  Leaf  Mills,  whose  smooth  water 
spread  up  into  the  woods  on  the  north.  On  the  western 
hillsides  were  the  openings  of  farms,  where  the  blue 
smoke  curled  from  the  cabin  chimneys.  On  the  east 
a  road  stole  out  of  the  woods,  down  between  the  corn 
fields  and  the  meadows,  and  lost  itself  in  the  woods 
upon  the  island  framed  between  the  mill-races  and  the 
river;  another  road  wound  round  the  hill  and  kept  the 
course  of  the  river  southward  out  of  sight. 

The  grist-mill  fronted  an  acre  of  open  space,  with  the 
hitching-rail  for  the  farmers'  horses  in  the  middle,  and 
a  few  rods  beyond  it  crouched  the  sawmill  among  piles 
of  lumber  and  saw-logs.  The  saw,  which  had  been 
hissing  sharply  at  its  work,  now  stopped  for  so  long 
a  breath  that  Powell  knew  the  water-gate  had  been 
closed  for  the  night,  and  the  soft  treble  of  the  grist 
mill  alone  filled  the  nearer  silence.  From  a  distance 
the  melancholy  note  of  a  farm  boy  calling  his  cows  in 
the  woods  struck  upon  his  ear;  the  miller  appeared 
in  the  open  space  with  a  measure  of  bran  under  his 
arm,  and,  calling  "  Pig,  pig,  pig,  poo-ee !"  was  an- 


NEW    LEAF    MILLS 

swered  from  the  fence  corners  and  wayside  nooks  with 
greedy  cries,  and  then  with  shrill  laments  and  plaintive 
protests  against  the  kicks  which  he  distributed  among 
them  with  savage  fairness.  He  held  the  measure  in 
his  left  hand  like  a  tambourine,  and  danced  a  goblin 
figure  with  his  floury  face  bobbing  to  and  fro  and  up 
and  down  as  he  leaped  and  kicked. 

"  Come,  boys,"  said  Powell ;  "  I  see  the  other  New- 
Leafers  are  having  their  supper.  It's  time  for  ours, 
too." 

They  descended  to  their  cabin  and  broiled  their 
rashers  of  pork  on  the  hickory  coals;  the  tea-kettle 
swung  from  the  crane  above,  and  sang  to  itself ;  almost 
with  the  last  mouthful  they  stretched  themselves  on 
the  floor,  and,  with  the  scanty  bedding  they  had  brought 
under  and  over  them,  they  fell  asleep. 

In  the  night  one  of  the  boys  woke,  and  saw  his  father 
sitting  up,  and  heard  him  softly  groaning. 

"  What  are  you  doing,  father  ?"  he  asked,  sitting  up 
himself  and  speaking  for  the  companionship  of  his  own 
voice  in  the  weird  play  of  the  firelight  dying  on  the 
hearth. 

"  I  was  wondering,"  Powell  said,  "  whether  we 
hadn't  laid  these  boards  with  the  hard  side  up." 

They  had  a  laugh  together,  and  lay  down  to  sleep 
again.  Before  he  slept  the  boy  fancied  something  at 
the  window,  a  face  looking  in  like  the  white-painted 
face  of  a  clown  with  dark  streaks  running  downward 
from  the  corners  of  the  mouth ;  it  vanished,  and  in  the 
morning  he  thought  he  had  dreamed  it.  He  told  his 
father,  and  his  father  said,  "  Very  likely ;  one  might 
dream  anything  on  a  bed  like* that." 


Ill 


THE  miller  at  ~New  Leaf  Mills  had  been  there  many 
years  before  that  name  was  imagined ;  so  many  that  he 
felt  the  mills  a  part  of  himself.  He  always  meant  to 
buy  the  privilege,  with  the  farm  on  the  shore  above  the 
dam  and  the  island  in  the  river.  He  was  not  afraid 
that  the  property  would  be  sold  away  from  him;  he 
had  been  as  good  friends  with  the  two  old  brothers 
who  owned  the  mills  as  it  was  in  his  nature  to  be; 
and  he  somehow  thought  they  shared  his  expectation 
that  he  should  one  day  buy  them. 

He  was  not  of  the  Virginian  poor  white  stock  which 
mostly  peopled  the  region  up  and  down  the  river;  he 
had  wandered  into  the  place  from  somewhere  farther 
north  when  he  was  a  half-grown  boy,  and  finished  his 
growth  in  the  family  of  the  old  miller  to  whom  he  had 
apprenticed  himself  and  whom  he  succeeded  in  his 
house  and  home  after  marrying  his  daughter.  He  was 
now  a  man  of  forty,  surly,  solitary,  and  of  a  rude  force 
of  will  and  savage  temper  such  as  none  of  the  farmers 
who  stored  their  wheat  with  him  in  the  deep  bins  of 
the  mill  would  have  cared  to  trifle  with.  Some  of  them 
called  him  Jacob  and  some  Jake  in  the  neighborhood 
familiarity,  but  with  him  they  did  not  pass  to  the  jokes 
or  pranks  they  played  among  themselves.  He  was  some 
times  hospitable  with  his  jug,  but  no  one  ventured  to 
make  free  with  it ;  and  usually  he  was  a  sober  man  for 

the  time  and  place.     When  he  heard  that  the  Larrabee 
2  11 


NEW    LEAF    MILLS 

brothers  had  sold  the  mills  away  from  him  without 
giving  him  warning,  he  thought  first  of  his  gun,  and 
of  going  to  the  little  town  where  they  lived,  and  killing 
them  each  with  a  barrel  of  it;  then  he  thought  of  his 
jug,  perhaps  because  both  the  gun  and  the  jug  stood 
in  the  same  corner.  But  after  faltering  a  moment 
between  them  he  only  cleared  the  place  of  the  farmers, 
who  had  come  with  their  grists,  and  went  over  to  the 
sawmill,  where  he  presented  himself  in  such  violent  pan 
tomime  that  the  saw-miller,  Bellam,  stopped  his  saw  in 
the  middle  of  a  log  and  submissively  joined  him  in  the 
spree  with  which  Overdale  began  to  solemnize  his 
wrong. 

On  the  second  story  of  the  mill  where  the  runs  of 
stone  were,  with  the  bolting-cloths  and  the  barreling- 
machine,  a  small  space  had  been  portioned  off  to  serve 
as  an  office  and  a  sleeping-room  for  Overdale  when  he 
ran  the  burrs  at  night.  On  dull  days  it  was  haunted 
by  country  loafers  sodden  with  rain  and  drink;  when 
he  came  in  the  loafers  usually  slunk  out  with  the  dogs 
that  shared  the  buffalo  robe  forming  his  bed.  He  now 
pushed  Bellam  into  his  den  and  steeped  his  brain  in 
whiskey  raw  from  the  still  two  miles  away;  and  he 
drank  so  deep  of  the  scathing  liquor  himself  that 
Bellam  drunkenly  argued  with  him  that  no  man  ought 
to  swill  so  much  whiskey  as  that  under  any  provocation. 
He  pleaded  tenderly  with  the  miller,  who  had  such 
longing  for  pity  through  his  fury  that  when  Bellam 
put  out  his  hand  with  a  maudlin  wish  to  soothe  him 
Overdale  caught  it  and  rushed  him  crazily  through  the 
mill,  shouting  out  the  details  of  the  bad  news  with  a 
flame  of  oaths.  "  Yes,  they've  sold  the  mills,  and  never 
give  me  a  show.  Sold  'em  to  a  pack  of  lily-livered  city 
folks  that  don't  know  an  elevator  from  a  cooling-floor, 

and  couldn't  dress  a  burr  to  save  their  souls  from  brim- 

12 


NEW    LEAF    MILLS 

stone.  Look  at  that  run  of  stones !  I've  dressed  'em 
ever  since  they  came  into  the  mill,  arid  there  ain't 
flour  anywhere  on  the  river  up  to  the  flour  they  turn 
out ;  I  can  tell  their  tune  as  far  as  I  can  hear  it !  Who'll 
set  the  bolting-cloths  when  I'm  gone?  They'll  be 
barreling  shorts,  I'll  take  my  oath,  in  less  than  a  month, 
and  their  flour  won't  be  worth  a  curse  in  the  market. 
Shorts?  It '11  be  bran!" 

Bellam  ventured  in  a  doubt  of  getting  so  far  away  as 
the  end  of  his  sentence  which  gave  stateliness  to  his 
speech,  "  I  thought  you  said  it  was  going  to  be  turned 
into  a  paper-mill !" 

"Hell,  yes!  So  I  did.  The .  burrs  has  got  to 
come  out;  and  they'll  be  setting  up  a  lot  of  milk- 
poultice  tubs  in  their  place,  and  you  won't  see  clean 
wheat  in  the  bins  any  more,  but  rags  all  over  the 
place,  and  the  air  fit  to  kill  you  with  the  steam 
and  stink." 

He  plunged  about  among  the  machinery  with  Bel- 
lam's  rough  hand  in  one  of  his  and  a  smoky  lamp  held 
even  with  his  forehead  in  the  other,  throwing  gigantic 
formless  shadows  on  the  walls,  and  on  the  windows  deli 
cately  laced  with  cobwebs  and  drifted  with  the  floating 
flour.  The  two  men  stumbled  to  the  basement,  where 
the  tall  turbine  wheels  stood  motionless  in  their  tubs, 
with  the  water  sullenly  wasting  under  them,  and  then 
clambered  back  to  the  floor,  where  the  elevator  filled 
the  cups  of  its  long  belt  with  wheat  and  followed  it 
to  the  top  of  the  mill  where  it  discharged  them  into  the 
machine  which  blew  it  clean  of  cockle  and  smut  and 
left  it  ready  for  the  hoppers.  Everything  was  in  order, 
and  at  every  point  Overdale  poured  out  his  boastful 
lamentation.  He  gathered,  as  he  passed  the  different 
heaps  where  they  lay,  now  a  handful  of  wheat,  now  of 

bran,  now  of  middlings;  he  stopped  at  the  bins  under 

13 


NEW    LEAF    MILLS 

the  bolting-cloths  and  swept  up  a  double  handful  of 
the  flour,  white,  airy,  clinging  and  light  as  April  snow, 
and  played  with  it,  testing  its  smoothness  with  tipsy 
pathos;  and  so  lapsed  from  his  noisy  grief  in  a  dumb 
despair. 

As  the  miller  grew  t  silent  Bellam  grew  sleepy ;  he 
was  dimly  aware  at  last  of  being  dragged  back  to  Over- 
dale's  den  and  kicked  forward  onto  the  buffalo  robe 
with  a  soft  and  muffled  kick.  When  he  woke  the  ma 
chinery  of  the  mill  was  rattling  and  whistling  round 
him;  and  he  could  hear  the  mad  hum  of  the  burrs, 
which  sent  out  a  gunpowdery  odor  from  the  flints 
triturated  under  the  empty  hoppers.  He  tumbled 
tremulously  down  to  the  gates  to  shut  off  the  fear 
ful  head  of  water  rushing  on  the  wheels,  and  found 
Overdale  stretched  on  the  wet  stones  beside  them.  The 
miller's  face  was  always  white  from  the  flour,  but  now 
it  was  of  such  a  different  white  that  Bellam  thought 
he  was  dead.  He  dragged  him  within  reach  of  the 
spray  from  the  tubs,  and  the  miller  opened  his  eyes. 
He  opened  his  mouth,  too,  and  blasphemed  so  lucidly 
that  there  could  be  no  doubt  for  Bellam  that  he  was 
in  his  right  mind;  without  bating  a  curse  he  jumped 
to  his  feet  and  shut  off  the  water.  Bellam  took  the 
path  that  led  to  the  sawmill  and  started  the  saw  where 
he  had  stopped  it  the  evening  before,  and  then  waited 
in  a  drowse  till  breakfast-time.  As  he  went  home  to 
his  cabin  on  the  island,  past  the  grist-mill,  he  saw 
Overdale  sitting  in  the  doorway  of  the  second  story. 
The  machinery  had  got  back  its  mellow  note  of  con 
tented  industry,  and  the  miller  was  smoking  a  quiet 
pipe.  He  drew  down  his  shaggy  brows  in  his  habitual 
frown  of  greeting  as  Bellam  passed,  but  neither  spoke, 
though  Overdale  quelled  in  himself  a  crazy  impulse  to 

ask  the  saw-miller  about  the  dream  which  was  hanging 

14 


NEW    LEAF    MILLS 

cloudily  in  his  brain.  It  was  as  if  Bellam  must  know 
about  it  if  he  had  broken  in  upon  it  when  he  pulled 
Overdale  from  the  stones  beside  the  wheels.  Overdale 
was  not  sure  that  he  was  dreaming  it  precisely  then,  but 
he  seemed  to  have  first  become  aware  of  it  when  he  came 
to  himself,  and  he  was  conscious  of  an  instant  effort 
to  resist  it  and  put  it  away.  That  would  have  been 
easier  if  the  thing  had  been  at  once  anything  but  a 
formless  dread  in  which  the  sale  of  the  mills  away  from 
him  had  begun  to  weigh  like  doom.  As  nearly  as  he 
could  grasp  the  significance  of  it,  with  his  rude  mind, 
unused  to  any  hold  on  mystery,  it  meant  that  the  mills 
from  being  the  daily  wont  of  him  had  suddenly  be 
come  a  vital  part,  and  that  he  could  not  be  separated 
from  them  and  live.  He  would  not  have  put  his  vague 
foreboding  in  these  words  if  he  could  have  put  it  in  any, 
as  yet.  It  was  there  in  his  sense,  destined  to  gather 
weight  and  point,  and  have  power  upon  him  from  every 
superstitious  vagary  which  he  had  heretofore  supposed 
unheeded  hearsay,  but  which  he  should  hereafter  find 
inexorably  remembered. 

He  let  Bellam  go,  but  he  was  still  smoking,  irreso 
lutely  wishing  he  had  kept  him  and  put  his  shapeless 
trouble  to  the  best  of  his  knowledge,  when  a  voice  be 
fore  the  mill  door  under  him  called  up  in  a  high  thin 
pipe: 

"  Hello,  Overdale !  Have  you  heard  the  news  ?" 
The  miller  leaned  forward  and  glowered  down  into 
the  face  of  the  man  below.  It  was  the  young  lawyer, 
Captain  Bickler.  As  he  sat  his  horse  there  he  showed 
himself  a  spare,  graceful  figure  in  a  black  broadcloth 
coat  and  black  cassimere  pantaloons  covered  to  the 
knees  with  green  baize  leggins.  He  wore  a  silk  velvet 
waistcoat,  with  a  gold  watch-chain  crossing  it ;  the  peak 

of  a  flat  oilcloth  cap  came  over  his  forehead  to  his  shifty 

15 


NEW    LEAF    MILLS 

hazel  eyes;  his  dark  hair  fell  from  the  sides  in  locks 
carefully  turned  in  at  the  ends.  His  clothes  were  of  a 
cut  that  the  neighbors  understood  to  be  fashionable; 
it  was  known  that  he  got  them  at  a  clothing-store  in 
the  City,  as  the  people  of  the  region  called  the  large 
town  that  formed  its  center. 

The  miller  paused  long  enough  before  answering  to 
spit  to  the  leeward  of  the  horseman.  "  What  news  ?" 
he  grunted,  with  his  pipe  between  his  teeth. 

"  About  the  mills.  You're  sold  out  of  house  and 
home,"  the  horseman  said. 

"  I  know  it,"  the  miller  answered,  but  so  quietly 
that  Captain  Bickler  must  have  felt  at  a  loss  how  to 
go  on.  He  said,  with  his  eyes  fixed  in  uneasy  in 
quiry  on  the  miller's  white  mask,  "  They're  to  put 
in  paper  machinery,  I  hear,  in  about  a  year  from 
now." 

The  pipe  fell  from  the  miller's  teeth  and  broke  at  the 
bay  mare's  feet. 

"  Well,  what  of  that  ?"  he  demanded. 

"  Nothing.    But  I  think  it's  a  damn  shame." 

"  Yes.     Is  it  any  of  your  damn  business  ?" 

The  lawyer  took  the  retort  as  a  joke,  and  forced  a 
laugh.  "  Well,  I  just  wanted  you  to  know  how  we  feel 
about  it  around  here." 

"  Well,  now  I  know." 

"  The  Larrabees  ought  to  have  let  you  have  notice. 
Wasn't  there  some  kind  of  promise  ?"  The  miller  said 
nothing,  and  the  lawyer  added,  "  Well,  you  know  where 
to  come  if  you  want  any  law;  that's  all.  It  won't 
cost  you  anything."  He  waited  for  whatever  answer 
did  not  come,  then  he  shook  his  rein  and  rode  from 
under  the  glare  of  the  miller's  floury  face,  down  into  the 
road  and  across  the  tail-race. 

Overdale  looked  after  him  with  a  pang  such  as  holds 

16 


NEW    LEAF    MILLS 

one  motionless  and  mute,  while  he  felt  the  drunken 
dream  which  still  hung  in  his  brain  shape  itself  as 
with  an  electric  pulse  into  something  definite,  a 
prophecy  of  death,  capriciously  derived,  but  distinctly 
dated  in  event. 


IV 


IN*  the  month  that  passed  between  the  sale  of  the 
mills  and  the  coming  of  Owen  Powell  with  his  boys, 
Overdale  had  begun  trying  to  look  upon  his  dread  as 
something  he  should  be  ashamed  to  own.  His  success 
was  greatest  when  he  woke  in  the  morning,  for  that 
moment  when  disaster  seems  improbable  and  death  is 
not  in  the  world.  Through  the  forenoon  the  shadow 
of  his  fear  was  in  abeyance,  and  at  noon  it  shrank, 
like  the  shadow  that  he  cast  in  the  sun,  almost  to  noth 
ing,  and  troubled  him  as  little  as  at  dawn.  The  familiar 
tasks,  the  traits  of  custom  and  habit,  made  him  forget 
it;  the  murmur  of  the  grist-mill  working  so  smoothly 
and  quietly,  and  the  shrill  hissing  of  the  sawmill  filled 
his  sense  and  stilled  the  dread  within.  As  he  sat 
smoking  his  pipe  and  looking  out  on  the  road,  where 
now  and  then  a  farmer  jogged  by  and  sent  him  a  hello, 
it  seemed  impossible  that  he  should  be  troubled  by  it 
again.  All  the  things  of  every-day  life  denied  it.  The 
ducks  and  geese  waded  about  the  edges  of  the  pool 
backed  up  from  the  head-race,  and  made  a  vulgar, 
friendly  clamor;  his  hounds  slouched  by  drowsily  in 
the  warm  sunlight,  with  their  air  of  weariness  from 
coon-hunting  the  night  before ;  his  pigs  rooted  among  the 
leaves  on  the  hillside,  or  paraded  to  and  fro  tinder  the 
mill  door,  greedy  for  their  noonday  feed;  the  turkeys 
and  chickens  strayed  over  the  open  space  before  the 

mill  and  among  the  saw-logs,  or  rustled  through  the  dry 

18 


NEW    LEAF    MILLS 

stalks  of  the  corn.  At  times  from  the  heart  of  the 
field  came  the  note  of  a  quail ;  from  the  pastures  the  sad 
trill  of  a  belated  meadow-lark. 

The  inward  stress  which  these  sights  and  sounds  com 
bined  to  banish  had  not  jet  grown  to  be  that  second 
consciousness  through  which  everything  must  pass  from 
the  world  to  him,  taking  color  of  its  dread.  But  when 
the  shadow  of  the  mill  began  to  lengthen  before  it  in 
the  afternoon,  and  at  last  to  be  lost  in  the  shadow  of 
the  western  upland  beyond  the  island,  the  miller  found 
his  place  at  the  door  intolerable,  and  went  to  look  for 
something  to  do  in  the  mill.  If  there  was  nothing,  he 
left  it  and  walked  up  the  path  beside  the  race  to  the 
sawmill,  where  the  loud  noise  put  him  in  some  heart 
again,  and  he  shouted  in  talk  with  Bellam.  When  he 
went  back  after  his  supper  the  rush  of  the  water  on 
wheels  beat  dreadfully  upon  him,  and  he  ran  up-stairs 
to  light  his  lamp.  The  light  cheered  him  for  a  little 
time,  and  he  was  glad  of  the  growing  cool  of  the  eve 
nings,  that  he  might  have  some  excuse  to  kindle  a  fire 
in  his  stove  and  listen  to  its  roar.  But  his  feints  and 
defenses  were  of  brief  effect,  and  in  the  night  hours 
that  he  spent  in  solitude  he  had  but  one  other  resource. 

The  neighbors  saw  that  he  had  begun  to  drink  a  great 
deal ;  he  offered  his  jug  to  all  who  came,  and  tilted  it 
up  himself  whether  they  joined  him  or  not ;  but  no  one 
could  say  that  he  had  seen  him  drunk.  His  fear  was 
like  a  strong  poison  in  his  veins;  the  fiery  liquor  did 
not  consume  him,  but  was  consumed  in  him;  it  only 
raised  his  heart  to  the  level  of  other  men's.  The  day 
when  Powell  came  with  his  boys  and  began  work  upon 
their  cabin  the  last  of  the  farmers  who  rode  away  from 
the  mill  door  left  Overdale  clinging  to  the  rope  that 
had  lowered  the  grist  to  his  horse's  back,  and  listening 

to  the  blows  of  the  hammer  in  the  cabin.    They  fell  like 

19 


NEW    LEAF    MILLS 

shocks  upon  the  miller's  heart ;  the  invisible  forces  there 
seemed  to  embody  his  fear  to  him,  and  it  passed  crazily 
through  him  that  he  might  wreak  his  anguish  on  them 
and  annul  his  fear.  The  notion,  diffuse  as  the  floating 
dust  that  settled  on  the  cobwebs  in  the  mill,  gathered 
shape  in  the  will  at  least  to  look  upon  the  impersonation 
of  his  fear;  and  with  finally  no  clearer  purpose  than 
this  he  took  his  shotgun  with  him  from  the  corner  of 
his  room  when  he  yielded  to  his  longing.  If  Powell, 
when  he  awoke  that  night  and  made  his  joke  about 
his  hard  bed,  could  have  looked  through  the  window 
black  before  his  eyes,  he  might  have  owned  for  once 
that  there  was  danger  in  the  world.  But  it  would  have 
been  like  him  to  contend  afterward  that  Overdale  was 
there  through  mere  curiosity;  and  the  miller  him 
self,  after  he  had  looked  upon  his  enemy's  face  and 
heard  his  friendly  voice,  might  not  have  confessed  any 
other  motive. 

He  stumbled  back  to  his  den  in  the  mill  and  roused 
the  fire  in  his  stove,  and  then  he  went  out  to  the  door 
again  to  look  at  the  night.  It  could  hardly  be  called 
the  night  any  longer.  The  pallor  of  dawn  was  begin 
ning  to  steal  into  the  east;  a  planet  shone  sharp  above 
the  kindling  sun,  and  the  stars  crisply  twinkled  about 
the  sky;  but  there  was  that  warning  of  day  in  the  air 
which  did  not  need  the  corroboration  of  a  cock  crow 
sounding  faintly  from  one  of  the  distant  farms.  Over- 
dale  drowsed  where  he  stood ;  he  flung  himself  upon  the 
buffalo  robe  in  the  corner  of  the  warm  room  and  fell 
into  a  heavy  sleep. 


Powell  came  back  from  town  with  his  whole 
family  to  take  possession  of  his  new  home,  early  in 
October,  nothing  about  the  place  had  kept  quite  the 
poetic  aspect  which  rejoiced  him  when  he  first  came 
with  his  boys.  He  was  forced  now  to  see  it  with  the 
unsparing  eyes  of  his  wife,  which  robbed  it  of  the 
glamour  it  had  worn  to  his  retrospective  vision.  The 
touches  of  construction  and  decoration  which  he  had 
given  the  cabin  showed  bungling  and  ineffective; 
the  floor  wavered  in  spite  of  his  relaying  or  on 
account  of  it;  the  repairs  of  the  clapboarded  roof 
did  not  keep  out  the  rain,  or,  later,  the  snow  when 
it  came. 

The  pigs  of  the  earlier  tenants  of  the  cabin  had  been 
sold  to  the  miller,  but  they  had  not  forgotten  the  com 
fort  of  their  former  home.  When  they  had  finished 
their  midday  feed  before  the  mill  they  hurried  to  the 
cabin,  and  beaded  the  cleft  between  the  door  and  the 
threshold  with  their  pink  snouts  and  appealed  to  the 
charity  of  the  Powells  with  sharp  menace  and  soft 
insinuation.  After  their  evening  feed  they  resorted  to 
the  warm  chimney-back,  at  the  base  of  the  gable,  as  they 
had  always  done;  the  boys  made  forays  into  the  dark 
to  dislodge  them,  but  the  pigs  returned  before  the  boys 
were  well  indoors  again.  The  mother  could  not  share 
the  younger  children's  pleasure  in  making  believe  they 

were  wolves;  she  remembered  the  real  wolves  of  the 

21 


NEW    LEAF    MILLS 

mystical  region  which  they  knew  from  her  abhorrence 
as  Out  on  Sandy,  where  she  used  to  hear  them  howling 
through  the  dark  when  she  was  a  little  girl;  and  she 
told  the  children  the  comfortable  grunting  of  the 
quiescent  pigs  was  nothing  like  it. 

There  was  an  echo  of  it  in  the  nightly  baying  of 
the  coon-dogs  that  came  hulking  to  the  mill  at  the  heels 
of  the  farmers'  horses  on  grist-day  and  showed  them 
selves  large,  lop-eared,  liver-colored  hounds.  They  were 
of  no  use  by  day,  but  by  night  when  the  moon  was 
up,  and  they  had  treed  a  coon  in  some  deadening  where 
the  girdled  walnuts  and  hickories  shone  like  bleached 
skeletons  in  the  light,  they  called  the  boys  and  the 
loutish  men  of  the  farms  from  their  beds  to  the  su 
preme  joy  of  the  local  year.  There  were  other  pleas 
ures  of  the  region  which  the  women  shared :  the  frolics 
where  they  met  with  the  men  for  parching  corn  and 
candy-pulling;  the  huskings  and  apple-peelings,  where 
neighborly  help  was  given  for  neighborly  hospitality; 
and  the  house-raisings  and  barn-raisings,  where  the 
women  gathered  and  waited  upon  the  men  at  the  meals 
they  had  cooked  for  them.  Separately  the  women  had 
their  quiltings,  and  the  men  at  Christmas  had  their 
shooting-matches,  where  turkeys  were  the  prizes  of  their 
rifles ;  they  had  their  squirrel-hunts,  in  which  the  squir 
rel  was  the  unit  of  every  kind  of  game ;  and  their  wild 
frolics,  where  the  jug  went  round  and  the  stag-dance 
shook  the  beams  and  rafters.  Quoits  and  foot-races  and 
jumping-matches  drew  the  men  together,  but  the  sexes 
united  again  in  revivals  and  baptisms  and  spelling- 
matches.  A  fierce  religiosity,  choosing  between  salva 
tion  and  perdition,  was  the  spiritual  life  which  an  open 
atheist  here  and  there  sweepingly  denied.  Camp-meet 
ings  assembled  old  and  young  from  far  and  near;  the 
instinctive  communism  of  the  pioneer  times  prolonged 

22 


NEW    LEAF    MILLS 

itself  in  the  social  life  by  mutual  help  in  the  things 
which  could  not  be  done  in  severalty.  But  otherwise 
the  farmers  dwelt  apart  on  their  wide  acreages  in  a 
solitude  unbroken  from  Sunday  to  Sunday  for  their 
wives.  When  they  came  to  the  mill  with  their  grists 
the  men  made  it  the  center  of  neighborhood  gossip  or 
political  debate,  but,  except  for  a  visit  with  their  women 
to  one  of  the  small  towns  of  the  region  for  buying  or 
selling^  they  kept  to  their  houses,  or  preferably  their 
barns.  The  barns  oftener  than  the  houses  were  of 
frame  and  clapboarded;  the  dwellings  were  mostly  re 
productions  of  the  log  cabins  of  the  first  settlers ;  they 
repeated  the  primitive  shapes  of  the  past,  but  the  logs 
were  squared  and  plastered  like  those  of  the  Powells' 
cabin.  The  few  houses  were  of  brick,  and  faced  upon 
the  road  with  two  front  doors,  one  for  visits  of  cere 
mony  from  the  neighboring  wives,  and  the  other  never 
opened  except  for  weddings  or  funerals. 

The  Powells  had  come  from  town  without  provision 
for  the  winter,  and  they  had  to  trust  for  supplies  to 
the  farmers,  who  sometimes  granted  them  surlily  and 
sometimes  cheerfully,  but  always  as  a  favor.  Owen 
went  for  them  with  his  boys  or  sent  the  boys  alone 
with  the  small  one-horse  wagon  provisionally  represent 
ing  the  dignity  of  the  New  Leaf  enterprise  to  the  lords 
of  three  or  four  hundred  acres,  who  took  the  road  with 
teams  of  tall  Hambletonians,  shining  with  fatness  in 
their  brass-mounted  harness.  The  farmers  viewed  the 
one-horse  wagon  with  silent  scorn  or  kindly  derision ; 
but  they  opened  for  Powell's  money  the  caves  in  their 
gardens  where  they  kept  their  winter  store  of  apples, 
potatoes,  cabbages,  and  turnips,  taking  and  giving  odor 
and  savor  under  a  low  roofing  sodded  over  and  banked 
in  with  earth  against  the  frost. 

Some  of  the  kindlier  farmers  were  German  or  Scotch- 

23 


NEW    LEAF    MILLS 

Irish  folk  from  western  Pennsylvania,  with  here  and 
there  a  French-Canadian  family,  but  mostly  the  people 
were  Virginians  and  Marylanders  of  a  fierceness  bred 
by  contact  with  slavery  and  with  a  poor  white  revolt  in 
their  hearts  against  any  one  imaginably  their  betters. 
But  their  revolt  did  not  include  the  superiority  of  the 
retired  merchant  who  had  come  out  from  town  and 
lived  with  his  motherless  daughter  in  a  house  having 
more  than  any  the  stateliness  of  a  mansion.  The 
gentleness  of  the  Bladens  was  akin  by  blood  to  the 
fierceness  of  the  rudest  tribe  of  the  neighborhood, 
and  how  the  shy,  pure  girl  could  keep  herself  un- 
contaminate  from  that  savage  cousinhood  was  a  riddle 
which  remained  unread  for  Ann  Powell;  she  only 
saw  that  the  tribe  paid  the  Bladens,  father  and 
daughter  alike,  a  deference  which  they  rendered  to 
no  one  else. 

The  women  were  better  than  the  men,  and  they  with 
the  other  farm  wives  of  the  little  neighborhood  which 
had  formed  itself  within  a  mile  of  the  mills  came  to 
offer  Ann  what  welcome  they  knew  how  to  give.  With 
a  few  she  found  herself  in  neighborly  kindness;  but 
if  she  could  have  got  away  she  would  have  been  glad 
never  to  see  any  of  them  again.  For  her  it  was  all 
a  reversion  to  the  barbarism  of  the  new  country  where 
her  childhood  was  passed,  and  which  she  had  so  gladly 
escaped  from  to  the  civility  of  the  towns  where  she 
had  lived  ever  since  she  left  the  farm  with  her  young 
husband.  Now,  when  they  were  both  middle-aged  peo 
ple,  she  seemed  to  have  been  dragged  back  to  conditions 
worse  than  those  of  the  backwoods.  Nothing  at  New 
Leaf  Mills  made  her  days  endurable  but  the  promise  of 
the  early  coming  of  her  sisters-in-law  to  form  the  heart 
of  the  communal  body  nebulously  projected  in  the 
vision  of  their  husbands.  The  change  from  town  had 

24 


NEW    LEAF    MILLS 

been  simple  enough  for  Owen  Powell,  who  had  brought 
only  the  hope  of  a  starry  future  from  the  ruin  of  his 
affairs;  but  his  brothers  had  each  to  sell  out  or  close 
up  his  business,  and  the  delay  was  protracting  itself 
to  an  end  that  seemed  to  his  wife  further  off  every 
day. 

She  could  have  borne  the  visits  of  the  farmers'  wives, 
but  she  could  not  bear  the  visits  of  the  farmers,  who 
came  on  wet  days  to  sit  with  her  husband  before  the 
cabin  fire.  Their  coats  dripped  with  the  rain,  and 
their  stoga-boots,  that  reeked  of  the  pig-pen  and  the 
barnyard,  gave  out  their  stench  in  the  heat  while  they 
told  their  long  stories  and  cracked  their  old  jokes  and 
spat  in  the  hot  ashes  or  the  bristling  coals  where  she 
must  cook  the  family  supper  when  they  were  gone. 
They  had  begun  at  once  to  call  Powell  by  his  first 
name,  which  she  resented  as  a  token  of  the  general 
lapse  from  the  town  civilities  she  prized,  and  which  she 
resented  the  more  because  she  perceived  that  no  friend 
liness  went  with  the  freedom.  They  could  not  help 
despising  a  man  apparently  so  unfit  to  cope  even  tenta 
tively  and  provisionally  with  the  business  he  had  under 
taken.  Felix  Powell  soon  added  a  two-horse  team  and 
a  blue-painted  wagon  of  the  proper  pattern  to  the  scanty 
equipment  of  Owen's  first  days  at  New  Leaf,  but  even 
this  did  not  convince  the  neighbors  of  that  future  of 
universal  prosperity  which  they  believed  they  had  been 
promised. 

Owen  Powell  was  personally  unimpressive  in  his 
circumstances;  yet  he  was  finally  of  a  dignity  which 
in  spite  of  his  wife's  fears  the  neighbors  did  not  grow- 
ingly  infringe.  It  was  not  their  fault  that  they  could 
not  imagine  him ;  he  knew  this ;  but  it  was  not  in  him 
to  feel  unkindness  toward  them  for  it.  He  felt  the  sort 
of  liking  for  them  which  tolerance  breeds.  If  they 

25 


NEW    LEAF    MILLS 

laughed  at  his  wit,  he  laughed  at  their  rude  drolling; 
he  did  not  resent  their  conceit  or  their  tedious  advice; 
he  knew  as  well  as  his  wife  that  they  were  boors,  and 
not  pioneers;  but  it  did  not  make  him  unhappy.  It 
amused  him  that  they  cherished  the  largest  landowners 
among  them  as  a  sort  of  social  chiefs  because  of  their 
more  acres  and  their  better  horses,  and  valued  their 
consequence  above  his  own  civilization.  With  his 
Quaker  origin  he  could  not  mind  their  calling  him  by 
his  given  name  or  even  trying  for  a  nickname  from  it ; 
but  he  could  not  help  sharing  his  wife's  relief  when 
ever  the  last  of  his  visitors  hulked  out  of  the  cabin 
door,  which  they  did  not  always  remember  to  shut  after 
them. 

The  family  was  safe  from  them  after  nightfall. 
Then,  when  Mrs.  Powell  and  her  little  girls  had  cleared 
the  supper  away,  she  sat  down  with  her  family  in  the 
firelight,  while  Powell  read  to  them  by  the  candles 
which  in  his  retrospective  romance  he  had  cast  in  some 
old-fashioned  candle-mtolds  of  their  earliest  housekeep 
ing.  He  read  poetry  sometimes,  sometimes  a  book  of 
travel,  sometimes  a  novel ;  on  Sunday  nights  he  read  a 
chapter  from  Swedenborg's  Heavenly  Arcana  or  a 
Memorable  Relation  of  Tilings  8een  and  Heard  in  Hie 
Spiritual  World,  or  a  New  Church  sermon,  which,  by 
the  virtue  inherent  in  sermons,  soon  had  the  children 
scattered  about  him  on  the  floor.  When  they  were 
gathered  up  and  got  to  bed,  the  boys  in  the  cabin  loft 
and  the  little  girls  in  their  mother's  room,  Powell 
and  his  wife  lingered  awhile  before  the  fire  to 
talk  of  that  future  which  had  lured  them  to  New 
Leaf  Mills,  but  which  from  time  to  time  needed 
for  her  the  constructive  touches  he  was  so  willing 
to  give  it. 

She  lived  in  the  memories  which   he  promised   it 

26 


NEW    LEAF    MILLS 

should  renew  in  the  things  dear  to  her  home-keeping- 
heart.  All  her  married  days  she  had  worked  hard 
with  head  and  hand  to  get  together  and  keep  together 
the  few  things  which  dignified  her  simple  house  in 
town.  There  were  notably  six  cane-seated  chairs  which 
Felix  had  given  her  for  the  distinction  of  her  parlor, 
and  which  she  now  hid  in  her  own  room  rather  than 
set  them  out  in  the  place  where  those  hulking  farmers 
could  spoil  them ;  she  would  indulge  some  of  the  neigh 
bors7  wives  with  the  use  of  them  when  these  worthier 
women  came  alone;  she  would  show  them  her  pieces 
of  old  silver,  and  in  moments  of  signal  intimacy  bring 
out  her  black  silk  and  her  best  bonnet,  which  could  not 
otherwise  be  seen;  for  the  Powells  did  not  go  to  the 
service  of  any  sect  of  the  Old  Church  in  the  village 
where  the  country  women  wore  their  finery.  She  had 
her  air-tight  parlor  stove  put  up  in  her  bedroom,  with 
the  bookcase  which  held  her  husband's  library,  and  his 
portrait  done  in  his  young  manhood,  and  the  mahogany- 
framed  engraving  of  Swedenborg  which  visibly  attested 
Owen's  religious  persuasion  and  hers.  She  kept  her 
flowered  carpet  there,  sacred  from  the  men's  boots,  for 
the  parlor  of  the  new  house.  Powell  was  to  begin 
building  it  in  the  spring,  as  the  first  of  that  group  of 
dwellings  in  which  the  brothers  were  to  embody  their 
community  to  the  sense  of  the  neighborhood,  and  she 
trusted  in  that  house  with  a  faith  potently  helped  by 
the  accumulation  of  black-walnut  logs  at  the  sawmill 
for  the  weather-boarding  and  shingles  which  were  to 
cover  the  frame  in  and  save  the  cost  of  paint  by  their 
natural  coloring.  She  measurably  believed  in  all  the  ' 
things  of  her  husband's  faith,  even  in  the  harp  which 
he  had  made  in  his  hours  of  leisure  with  his  own  hand, 
and  which  he  expected  some  day  to  play  upon  when 
he  had  the  opportunity  of  learning  how;  failing  that 
3  27 


NEW    LEAF    MILLS 

hitherto,  he  already  struck  it  with  a  hopeful  if  uncer 
tain  touch. 

He  was  so  wholly  her  spiritual  life  that  she  could 
give  herself  altogether  to  her  house  and  her  family; 
and  if  she  was  an  earth-bound  spirit  it  was  because  she 
realized  in  her  home  a  heaven  such  as  she  could  not 
imagine  elsewhere.  Of  course  she  expected  in  due 
course  that  immortality  which  the  Doctrines  promised 
her  with  such  scientific  precision ;  but  for  the  present 
she  was  content  with  the  affection  which  came  back  to 
her  here  from  those  whom  she  loved  and  who  made  her 
paradise.  If  the  log  cabin  and  the  conditions  which  it 
implied  were  not  the  setting  for  this  paradise  which  her 
house  in  town  had  been,  this  could  be  fitly  domiciled 
again  when  the  new  house  was  built  after  the  plans 
which  Owen's  invention  supplied,  and  which  he  had 
begun  to  draw  out  in  the  evening  as  soon  as  they  were 
settled  for  the  winter  in  the  cabin. 

That  helped  keep  her  from  fearing  herself  perma 
nent  in  it ;  but  there  were  other  evenings  when  Powell 
put  the  harp  in  order  after  one  of  its  frequent  seasons 
of  disuse  and  complicated  disability.  In  form  it  was 
not  as  other  harps  are;  it  was  triangular,  with  a  slant- 
ting  bar  at  top  instead  of  the  traditional  sinuous  arch ; 
but  he  held  that  this  structural  aberration  did  not  af 
fect  its  musical  potentiality  and  was  of  antique  au 
thority.  For  the  present  he  struck  the  strings  some 
what  at  hazard,  but  if  he  accompanied  them  with  his 
voice  loudly  enough,  he  could  drown  anything  like  dis 
sonance  in  their  response.  His  wife  listened  with 
tolerance,  if  not  unfailing  acceptance,  to  his  perform 
ance,  and  his  children,  without  closely  examining  the 
evidence  of  their  senses,  thought  that  he  played  as 
well  as  sang  the  piece  which  he  liked  best  to  give 

them : 

28 


NEW    LEAF    MILLS 

"  When  in  death  I  shall   calm  recli-i-ne, 

Oh,  bear  my  heart  to  my  mistress  dear; 
Tell  her  it     wed  upon  smi-i-les  and  wi-i-ne 

Of  the  brightest  /me  while  it  lingered  ftere. 
Bid  her  not  shed  one  tear  of  sorrow, 

To  sully  a  Aear£  so  brilliant  and  Zz0ft£, 
Bu-u-t  balmy  drops  of  the  red  grape  borrow, 

To  fea^e  the  refo'c  from  mom  till  night" 


VI 


His  harp  was  one  out  of  many  proofs  which  Powell 
was  always  giving  of  his  ingenious  aptness  with  his 
hands  and  of  his  inventive  skill.  In  the  leisure  from 
his  failing  business  which  had  latterly  grown  so  much 
too  great  he  contrived  himself  a  barometer,  for  which  he 
long  wanted  a  glass  tube  till  once  his  eldest  boy  re 
turned  from  a  visit  to  his  birthplace  Up  the  River, 
bringing  from  the  glass-works  there  a  tube  in  the  barrel 
of  a  gun  which  an  uncle  had  given  him.  It  exactly 
fitted  the  barrel  and  came  endeared  to  Powell's  humor 
by  the  novelty  of  its  conveyance;  he  framed  it  in  a 
cedar  case  which  he  carved  for  it,  and  it  entered  upon 
a  long  lease  of  usefulness  in  predicting  fair  and  rainy 
weather.  It  was  really  a  more  practicable  instrument 
than  the  harp,  or  even  the  flute  which  he  got  for  the 
next  younger  boy,  and  then  left  him  to  nature  in  the 
art  of  playing  on  it.  He  believed  that  you  could  do 
what  you  wished  to  do  if  you  wished  it  potently  enough ; 
and  he  left  the  boy  likewise  to  nature  in  his  struggles 
with  the  grammars  of  some  foreign  languages  which 
he  began  attempting  while  he  was  failing  with  the  flute. 
He  did  not  struggle  very  hard  with  the  grammars; 
he  preferred  his  reveries  of  triumphs  achieved  without 
a  struggle  which  he  could  indulge  when  to  other  eyes 
he  seemed  to  be  hoeing  corn,  or  not  hoeing,  or  wander 
ing  with  the  family  gun  on  his  shoulder  through  the 
woods.  He  amused  his  father,  who  called  him  the 


NEW    LEAF    MILLS 

Dreamer,  and  let  him  off  from  going  to  school.  Powell 
was  more  this  boy's  companion  than  his  eldest  son's, 
though  he  respected  the  business  faculty  of  the  other 
so  much  and  relied  upon  his  help  in  all  practical  mat 
ters  ;  he  talked  most  with  the  younger,  and  tried  to  have 
him  like  the  same  authors,  but  the  boy  could  not  al 
ways  share  his  father's  tastes ;  he  could  not  like  Burns, 
though  he  liked  Scott's  poetry  enough  for  his  father's 
purposes  and  he  liked  Byron  a  little. 

He  could  follow  his  father  still  less  in  the  ingenious 
use  of  his  hands,  but  there  he  could  at  least  admire  its 
effects  with  the  rest.  Before  the  family  came  to  the 
mills,  but  when  it  was  decided  that  the  change  from 
a  grist-mill  to  a  paper-mill  was  not  to  be  made  at  once, 
Powell  gratified  his  artistic  instinct  by  cutting  a  stencil 
plate  for  the  heads  of  the  flour-barrels.  He  studied 
from  nature  a  sycamore  leaf,  and  crowned  it  with  the 
legend  of  New  Leaf  Mills.  When  this,  by  the  applica 
tion  of  a  shoe-brush,  transferred  its  shape  to  a  sheet 
of  white  pasteboard,  it  commanded  the  respect  of  the 
whole  household.  Ann  herself  could  not  deny  it  her 
praise,  though  she  abhorred  every  mention  of  the  mills ; 
the  children  exulted  in  it  as  the  anticipation  of  their 
brightest  hopes;  their  young  aunt  was  generously  in 
dignant  in  her  admiration  of  it  when  Felix  said,  with 
his  melancholy  smile :  "  You  can  make  so  many  other 
things,  Owen,  that  it's  no  wonder  you  never  made  your 
fortune.  If  the  mills  fail  you  can  support  us  all  by 
stencil-cutting,"  and  Powell  had  an  affectionate  laugh 
with  him. 

When  he  transferred  his  family  to  New  Leaf,  he 
lost  no  time  in  preparing  for  the  navigation  of  the 
river.  He  shaped  a  skiff,  very  graceful  and  fit  in  its 
lines,  from  two  elastic  boards  for  the  sides  and  a  broad 
plank  for  the  bottom,  which  was  his  pride  and  the  joy 

31 


NEW    LEAF    MILLS 

of  his  boys,  who  stole  in  it  on  the  wild  ducks  they  never 
could  shoot;  he  built  a  flatboat,  commodious  for  the 
whole  family,  and  on  the  still  Sunday  afternoons  of  the 
Indian  Summer  he  made  them  all,  mother  and  children, 
go  with  him  up  the  stream,  so  wide  and  still  above  the 
dam.  He  punted  against  the  slow  current,  walking 
down  the  gunwale  with  a  pole  pressed  against  his 
shoulder,  as  he  told  them  the  keel-boatmen  used  to  do 
on  the  Ohio  River ;  and  then  he  let  it  drift  back  to  the 
dam  while  they  lay  in  the  straw-strewn  floor  of  the  boat, 
and  he  talked  and  the  rest  listened,  or  he  joked  with 
them.  When  the  mother  did  not  wish  to  joke,  for  even 
in  this  safety  from  the  intrusive  neighborhood  she 
could  not  forget  her  exile,  Powell  had  to  turn  from  his 
talking  and  laughing  and  hearten  her  with  promises 
from  his  unfailing  faith  in  the  future.  But  the  small 
pleasure  she  had  in  those  flatboat  voyages  was  spoiled 
one  Sunday  when  they  found  the  boat  gone  and  had  to 
wait  till  some  of  their  bold  young  neighbors  brought 
it  back.  Powell  scolded  them,  saying,  if  it  was  worth 
having;  it  was  worth  asking  for;  and  the  fellow  would 
not  betray  that  one  of  Powell's  boys,  flattered  into  au 
thority  by  their  asking  him  for  it,  had  said  he  did  not 
believe  his  father  would  mind  their  taking  it.  It 
was  the  Dreamer  who  had  done  this,  and  now  he  longed 
with  his  whole  soul  to  own  that  he  had  given  those 
fellows  leave  to  take  the  boat,  but  he  could  not  own  it 
for  the  shame  it  must  bring  him.  He  passed  days  of 
wistful  inability  trying  for  some  form  of  avowal  by 
which  he  should  appear  so  noble  to  his  father  that  his 
father  would  praise  him  rather  than  blame  him,  but 
he  could  not  contrive  anything  so  imperatively  mag 
nanimous  ;  or  anything  which  would  not  lead  to  his 
going  with  his  father  and  apologizing  to  those  neighbors 

for  his  want  of  candor.    He  could  not  imagine  any  out- 

32 


NEW    LEAF    MILLS 

come  creditable  to  himself  even  with  his  mother,  who 
was  so  tender  with  him,  but  would  not  spare  him  in  such 
a  wrong,  and  he  let  her  remain  in  her  fear  of  the  re 
venge  which  the  neighbors  would  take  on  his  father, 
though  it  never  came  to  more  than  an  increase  of  in 
tangible  ill-will. 

Her  refuge  from  this  fear,  as  from  her  father's 
troubles,  was  in  the  visits  which  Felix  and  Jessamy 
paid  her  in  her  exile.  The  Indian  Summer  lingered 
late  into  November,  and  on  one  of  the  dim  afternoons 
Felix  Powell  drove  from  town  to  the  mills  with  his 
wife.  Ann  kissed  them,  and  got  out  for  the  early  sup 
per  that  best  china  which  she  could  not  have  touched  at 
any  other  time  without  a  pang  for  the  lost  state  wrhich 
it  symbolized.  But  for  the  dear  young  pair  who  seemed 
a  part  of  the  town  life  she  had  lost,  she  hurried  forward 
one  of  the  meals  which  her  family  thought  matchless 
in  cookery.  Her  husband  sat  the  feast  through  with 
his  innate  gaiety  of  heart  heightened  by  his  brother's 
presence,  and  did  not  seem  to  note  any  vagueness  in 
the  talk  of  Felix  about  the  enterprise  which  he  re 
ported  his  progress  in  pioneering.  If  Ann  felt  some 
thing  unwonted  in  the  tone  of  her  brother-in-law,  pride 
kept  her  from  pressing  any  question  of  it;  and  during 
a  visit  which  left  Powell  with  his  spirits  as  high  as 
ever,  she  could  not  bear  to  dash  them  with  her  secret 
fears.  The  most  tangible  reason  for  her  fears  was 
nothing  more  tangible  than  her  sister's  letting  fall  in 
their  women's  talk  together  her  belief  that  Felix  would 
never  be  willing  to  live  beyond  the  sound  of  church- 
bells  ;  and  Ann  remembered,  with  a  sinking  heart,  that 
there  were  no  church-bells  within  three  miles  of  New 
Leaf  Mills.  She  bade  them  both  a  cheerful  good-by 
when  they  drove  away  from  the  cabin  in  their  buggy, 

looking  back,  one  on  each  side,  to  prolong  their  fare- 

33 


NEW    LEAF    MILLS 

wells,  with  smiles  and  nods;  then  she  turned  and  ran 
back  into  the  cabin  with  her  apron  over  her  head. 

"  What  is  the  matter,  what  is  the  matter,  my  poor 
girl  ?"  Powell  entreated  her,  and  she  said,  Oh,  nothing ; 
she  was  not  feeling  very  well.  But  after  the  children 
were  abed  and  she  was  alone  with  him  she  told  him 
what  she  was  afraid  of. 

"  They  will  never  come  here  in  the  world,  Owen. 
She  let  it  out  in  that  about  the  church-bells.  I  don't 
blame  either  of  them.  Who  would  want  to  live  in  such 
a  God-forsaken  hole  ?" 

"  Not  quite  a  hole,  my  dear,"  he  tried  to  comfort 
her,  "  though  it  may  look  like  one  from  the  inside." 
He  became  fascinated  with  his  notion,  and  added :  "  But 
it  isn't  really  such  a  bad  hole,  even  from  the  inside; 
and  we  will  soon  better  it.  I  don't  wonder  you're  dis 
heartened  with  a  winter  in  the  cabin  before  you,  but 
we  shall  begin  to  build  our  new  house  as  soon  as  the 
frost  is  out  of  the  ground  in  the  spring.  I  have  got 
together  most  of  the  logs  already;  and  I  was  think 
ing  "•  —but  Powell  had,  perhaps,  just  that  moment 
thought — "  that  we  would  go  in  the  morning  and 
definitely  choose  the  site  of  the  house.  I  have  an  idea 
that  the  level  at  the  foot  of  the  hill,  just  opposite  the 
mill,  would  be  the  proper  place.  But  you  shall  decide 
yourself." 

She  probably  knew  that  this  decision  of  hers  would 
be  directed  by  his  judgment,  but  she  could  not  refuse 
the  consolation  his  promise  offered  her,  and  with  her 
reliance  on  his  hopes  she  began  to  doubt  her  fears.  A 
mild  Sunday  morning  dawned  in  pale  sunshine,  and 
after  the  breakfast,  which  her  little  girls  helped  her 
redd  up,  she  went  for  the  walk  with  her  husband  and 
children  which  he  considered  so  much  better  for  them 
all  than  a  religious  service  of  the  Old  Church.  'No 

34 


NEW    LEAF    MILLS 

chime  invited  them  to  their  worship,  but  when  they 
had  climhed  the  hill  above  the  site  fixed  for  their  new 
house,  he  made  her  listen  and  almost  made  her  hear 
the  sound  of  a  bell  from  the  village  three  miles  to  the 
southward.  The  children  were  sure  that  they  heard  it, 
and  Powell  triumphed  in  their  agreement.  "  There !" 
he  said.  "  If  Felix  can't  live  beyond  the  sound  of  the 
church-going  bell,  he  can  come  up  here,  any  Sunday 
morning  when  the  wind  is  right,  and  hear  it." 

He  shared  the  shock  which  Ann  felt  at  sight  of  the 
huddle  of  neglected  graves  on  the  hilltop,  with  their 
sunken  barrows  and  their  slanting  stones,  and  the 
miller's  pigs  rooting  for  the  mast  among  the  dead 
leaves ;  but  he  said  that  she  must  not  judge  their  neigh 
bors  too  harshly  for  the  neglect;  the  state  of  these 
graves  did  not  express  the  callousness  it  would  in  a 
more  enlightened  community.  At  any  rate,  one  of  the 
first  things  he  should  set  about  doing,  as  soon  as  he 
could  spare  the  time,  would  be  sawing  out  a  lot  of 
palings  to  fence  the  graveyard.  That  would  be  a  lesson 
in  civilization  which  could  offend  no  one;  he  had  per 
ceived  that  he  must  not  begin  to  educate  the  neighbor 
hood  without  due  tenderness  for  its  barbarity.  While 
he  talked  with  the  mother  and  cajoled  her  from  her 
gloom  into  the  sunshine  of  his  own  spirit,  till  she  yielded 
with  the  lamentation,  "  Oh,  Owen,  Owen !"  the  chil 
dren  foraged  for  the  fallen  hickory-nuts,  and  filled  the 
little  bags  they  had  brought  with  them.  They  came  to 
him  to  show  their  store,  and  he  made  the  elder  even 
up  with  the  younger  ones  for  a  lesson  in  the  unselfish 
ness  which  he  told  them  was  not  only  one  of  the  first 
attributes  of  the  angels  in  Heaven,  but  was  due  always 
from  the  stronger  to  the  weaker  in  this  world.  Then 
he  gave  his  hand  to  their  mother  and  lifted  her  from 

the  little  knoll,  where  they  had  been  lying,  and  raced 

35 


NEW    LEAF    MILLS 

her  down  the  hillside.  The  young  children  ran  scream 
ing  joyously  after,  and  the  elder  boys  bore  with  what 
patience  they  might  the  incorrigible  youthfulness  of 
their  father. 

It  was  the  last  pleasant  day  of  a  long  series  of  pleas 
ant  days.  In  the  night  the  autumnal  haze  turned  to 
mist,  the  clouds  gathered,  and  the  boys,  sleeping  in  the 
cabin  loft,  woke  in  rapture  at  the  sound  of  rain  on  the 
clapboards  over  their  heads  and  the  pelting  of  the  finer 
drops  in  their  faces.  The  rain  lasted,  off  and  on,  for 
a  week,  and  by  grist-day  the  open  space  before  the 
mill,  which  had  been  so  pleasant  to  their  bare  feet  with 
its  velvety  dust,  was  trodden  into  mire  by  the  miller's 
pigs,  and  then  patted  smooth  by  the  web  feet  of  his 
geese,  and  again  cut  by  the  wheels  and  pitted  by  the 
hoofs  of  teams  bringing  in  the  farmers'  wheat  for 
storage. 

It  was  at  the  sawmill  that  Powell  spent  most  of  his 
time,  coming  home  to  his  meals  with  aches  and  pains 
unfelt  during  the  years  of  his  town  life,  but  now  un 
grudgingly  recognized  as  experiences  of  his  rustic  past. 
He  had  mastered  such  simple  science  of  the  sawmill 
work  as  Bellam  was  able  to  impart,  and  he  had  applied 
his  universal  genius  to  the  invention  of  improvements 
in  the  double  tramway  which  carried  the  sawn  lumber 
down  from  the  mill  and  brought  the  logs  up  into  it. 
The  iron  dogs  which  held  the  sticks  of  timber  in  place, 
and  the  cogs  that  pushed  them  against  the  saw,  received 
some  creative  touches,  and  he  added  to  the  other 
equipments  a  circular  saw  that  bit  diagonally  half 
through  Bellam's  thumb  the  first  time  he  pressed  upon 
it  the  block  of  walnut  which  it  was  shredding  into 
shingles  for  the  new  house.  Owen  stayed  the  sufferer 
in  his  burst  of  terror  and  put  back  the  dangling  frag 
ment,  which  he  secured  so  skilfully  in  place  that,  though 

36 


NEW    LEAF    MILLS 

it  always  stood  a  little  awry  afterward,  it  remained  a 
monument  to  his  surgery. 

Ann  refused  to  hear  the  particulars  which  the  chil 
dren  would  so  willingly  have  furnished;  they  had  en 
joyed  the  most  favorable  places  in  the  front  row  of  the 
crowd  which  Bellamys  lamentations  had  called  to  wit 
ness  their  father's  skill;  she  told  them  she  should  be 
only  too  glad  if  they  got  away  from  the  mills  in  pieces 
large  enough  to  hold  their  lives.  Overdale  was  left 
alone  in  the  grist-mill  during  the  affair,  and  he  showed 
no  more  interest  than  Ann  in  the  procession  which  took 
the  saw-miller  to  his  home  on  the  island,  mounted  on 
a  led  horse,  and  supported  in  his  seat  by  eager  hands. 
When  the  doctor  came  he  justified  the  popularity  which 
Powell  had  won ;  he  said  that  just  the  right  thing  had 
been  done  for  Bellam's  thumb,  and  that  nothing  was 
left  for  him  but  to  dress  it  now  and  then. 


VII 


POWELL  had  been  careful  not  to  add  to  the  grudge 
in  Overdale  which  he  could  not  ignore,  and  he  had 
left  him  in  full  control  of  the  grist-mill  until  the  paper 
machinery  should  be  put  in;  the  miller  was  told  that 
the  new  owners  would  be  glad  to  have  him  stay,  and 
he  signified  a  surly  willingness  to  remain,  more  by 
staying  than  by  saying  that  he  would  stay.  His  life 
did  not  vary  under  the  new  ownership;  he  came  and 
went  from  his  house  beyond  the  sawmill  so  early  be 
fore  dawn  and  late  after  dark  that  he  was  seen  to  come 
and  go  only  at  noonday;  he  slept  in  the  grist-mill,  as 
he  had  always  done.  His  sprees  were  wilder,  but  they 
were  not  so  frequent,  and  they  ended  sooner  in  the 
drunken  sleep  in  which  the  machinery  was  apt  to  run 
riot.  The  saw-miller  had  always  taken  leave  to  shut 
off  the  water  at  these  times,  and  during  Bellam's  dis 
ability  Powell  put  himself  briefly  in  authority.  He 
no  more  disliked  Overdale  than  he  disliked  any  other 
fellow-creature,  and  he  accounted  for  the  miller's  rude 
ness  toward  himself  as  the  impatience  of  a  man  who 
was  somehow  sick  beyond  self-command.  What  his 
sickness  was,  whether  of  soul  or  body,  he  could  not 
make  out.  Sometimes  he  thought  he  must  be  the  prey 
of  a  disease  which  he  was  trying  to  keep  secret  from 
himself;  sometimes  he  conjectured  that  the  miller  had 
some  misdeed  of  the  past  on  his  mind ;  he  decided  that 

more  probably  he  was  the  victim  of  some  form  of  hypo- 

38 


NEW    LEAF    MILLS 

chondria.  He  philosoph>  '  M  to  Ann,  without  effect 
other  than  to  alarm  her  ,^,jwn  safety. 

"  Well,  Owen,  be  carei  u/  not  to  provoke  him  with 
you,  if  he's  crazy  in  some  way,  or  beginning  to  go  crazy. 
Oh,  I  wish  we  had  never  seen  the  mills!  Now,  you 
keep  out  of  his  way  all  you  can,  Owen,  or  I  won't  have 
a  minute's  peace,  day  or  night." 

"  You  needn't  be  afraid  of  my  taking  any  chances," 
Powell  promised,  in  the  cheerfulness  he  always  had  in 
disowning  the  possibility  of  danger ;  and  then  he  began 
to  laugh  softly  to  himself  as  if  he  had  not  half  taken 
her  anxiety  in. 

"  What  is  it  ?"  she  asked,  hopelessly. 

"  Oh,  nothing.  But  Elder  Griswell  says  it's  the 
religion  that  is  working  in  Overdale;  all  you've  got 
to  do  is  to  throw  the  religion  out,  and  nothing  will 
throw  it  out  like  immersion.  That  will  bring  the 
religion  to  the  surface,  just  like  measles,  and  then 
Overdale  will  be  all  right." 

Ann  laughed  too  at  a  phase  of  the  Old  Church 
theology  which  Powell  could  make  so  amusing.  But 
her  anxiety  returned  upon  her  when  she  went  to  pay 
that  first  visit  to  the  miller's  wife  which  the  woman 
had  failed  to  make  her  as  the  new-comer.  She  had 
talked  the  matter  over  with  her  husband  and  had  de 
cided  to  waive  ceremony  in  a  case  of  what  she  had 
decided  to  be  uncouth  shyness  and  not  intentional  of 
fense  in  the  gaunt,  silent  slattern,  whom  she  charac 
terized  in  a  parlance  of  her  own  as  a  harmless  sloom. 
Her  magnanimity  was  rewarded  by  such  politeness  in 
Mrs.  Overdale  as  standing  with  her  door  ajar  and 
speechlessly  regarding  the  visitor  outside. 

"May  I  come  in,  Mrs.  Overdale?"  Ann  asked;  and 
the  sloom  set  her  door  a  little  farther  open. 

"  Why,  I  reckon,"  she  said ;  and  when  Ann  entered, 

39 


NEW    LEAF    MILLS 

she  so  far  realized  her  obligation  to  hospitality  as  to 
ask,  "Won't  you  set?" 

She  pushed  Ann  one  of  the  wooden  chairs  of  the 
dining-room,  which  was  also  the  living-room  of  the  low- 
ceiled,  close-shuttered  room,  and  then  took  a  rocking- 
chair  herself  and  silently  rocked  in  front  of  her  while 
she  studied  her  visitor's  face  in  an  abstraction  scarcely 
broken  by  her  brief  assents  to  Ann's  suggestions  about 
the  weather.  But  Ann  soon  came  to  the  end  of  these, 
and  then  the  miller's  wife  broke  the  silence  that  fol 
lowed. 

"  Your  man  got  anything  ag'inst  him  ?" 

Ann  recalled  the  backwqods  use  of  pronouns  by  which 
wives  and  husbands  shunned  explicit  mention  of  each 
other. 

"  Why,  no,  Mrs.  Overdale.  What  should  Mr.  Powell 
have  against  your  husband  ?" 

After  a  season  of  dreamy  reflections  the  sloom  re 
sponded,  "  I  don't  know,  but  it  'pears  like,  from  his  tell, 
that  your  man  wanted  to  do  him  a  mischief." 

"  What  in  the  world  do  you  mean  ?  What  kind  of 
mischief  should  my  husband  want  to  do  yours  ?" 

"  Well,  he  don't  come  round  much,  exceptin'  fur  his 
meals.  But  from  his  tell  one  night  after  he'd  been 
at  the  jug,  when  he  wouldn't  have  any  supper,  'pears 
like  your  man  was  goin'  to  kill  him,  or  somepin.  He 
kep'  sayin'  your  folks  buyin'  the  privilege  would  be 
the  death  of  him." 

A  hot  flush  of  anger  followed  the  cold  thrill  of  dis 
may  which  the  woman's  first  words  had  sent  through 
Ann  Powell.  "  Well,  I  can  tell  you  what,  Mrs.  Over- 
dale,  I  won't  have  any  such  talk  about  Mr.  Powell  in 
the  neighborhood." 

"  Oh,"  Mrs.  Overdale  listlessly  interrupted,  "  I 
reckon  he  don't  talk  any.  I  reckon  he  don't  talk  much 

40 


NEW    LEAF    MILLS 

to  me  when  he's  sober.  It's  on'y  when  he's  been  at 
the  jug." 

"  He  had  better  keep  away  from  the  jug,  then/'  Ann 
began  again ;  but  the  miller's  wife  put  in : 

"  That's  what  I  always  been  tellin'  him,  but  he  don't 
seem  to  take  any  notice." 

Ann  refused  to  be  stayed  by  this  impression.  "  Mr. 
Powell  and  all  his  brothers  are  good  men;  they  don't 
want  to  do  anything  but  good  here,  and  it's  abominable 
for  any  one  to  say  anything  else  even  when  they've  been 
at  the  jug." 

"Well,  that's  what  I  told  him  at  the  time,"  Mrs, 
Overdale  agreed,  as  she  rocked  comfortably  to  and  from 
her  visitor.  "  I  told  him  your  man  could  have  the 
law  of  him." 

"  We  don't  want  the  law,"  Ann  retorted,  "  but  I  shall 
certainly  have  my  husband  find  out  what  Mr.  Over- 
dale  means."  She  said  much  more  to  the  same  pur 
pose  ;  she  could  not  recur  to  the  smooth  generalities  of  a 
ceremonious  call;  and  then  she  rose  and  made  her  way 
to  the  door. 

She  was  fairly  out  of  it  before  the  miller's  wife 
remembered  to  rise  and  follow  her  for  leave-taking. 
"  Well,  call  ag'in,"  she  drawled. 

Ann  was  still  angry,  but  she  answered,  "  I  hope  you 
will  come  to  see  me,  Mrs.  Overdale." 

"  Well,  I  will,  the  first  chancet  I  git.  But  don't  you 
wait." 


VIII 

AFTER  the  children  left  the  dinner-table  that  day, 
and  Powell  had  taken  his  hat  to  go  out,  Ann  asked 
him,  "  Are  you  going  to  the  grist-mill  ?" 

"  I'm  going  to  the  sawmill  to  help  Bellam.  He's 
rather  weak-handed  still  with  that  thumb  of  his." 

"  Well,  don't  saw  your  thumb  off,  Owen,"  she  said ; 
and  Powell  laughed  at  the  wild  notion.  "  And  another 
thing,  I  don't  want  you  to  go  near  Overdale  again  till 
we've  had  a  talk." 

"  I  don't  know  that  I  follow  you,  exactly,  Ann,  but 
it's  easy  for  me  not  to  go  near  Overdale.  What  is  it  ?" 

She  went  to  the  cabin  door  and  looked  out.  The 
children  were  playing  Indians  on  the  hillside  well  out 
of  hearing  across  the  road.  She  turned  back  to  her 
husband.  "  I  thought  I  could  tell  you  to-night  when 
they  were  all  in  bed,  but  I'd  better  do  it  now;  I  don't 
want  you  to  run  any  risks.  Owen,  that  worthless 
drunkard  has  been  saying  dreadful  things.  I  don't 
feel  as  if  your  life  was  safe  with  him." 

Owen  put  down  his  hat,  and  at  this  sign  of  concern 
for  her,  if  not  for  himself,  she  hurried  to  tell  him  what 
the  miller's  wife  had  said. 

He  took  her  anxiety  with  seriousness  instead  of 
the  teasing  lightness  which  he  so  often  tried  her 
patience  with.  "  Well,  my  dear,  I  don't  wonder  you're 
a  little  uncomfortable.  But  you  mustn't  be  troubled. 
There  isn't  the  least  danger  in  the  world,  not  the  least," 

42 


NEW    LEAF    MILLS 

he  said,  and  his  spirits  mounted  with  the  courage  of  a 
man  who  had  never  believed  himself  in  any  sort  of 
peril.  "  But  I  promise  you  I  won't  go  to  the  grist 
mill  till  I've  seen  you  again.  I  will  talk  with  Bellam 
about  the  matter." 

"  That  poor  lout  ?"  Ann  despaired.  "  Keally,  Owen, 
you  are  enough  to  provoke  a  saint." 

"  Yes,  but  we're  neither  of  us  saints,  Ann,"  he  an 
swered,  and  she  laughed  helplessly.  "  Bellam  has  the 
making  of  a  philosopher  in  him — that  is,  he  believes 
I'm  a  much  greater  man  than  I  am." 

Ann's  mind  went  off  at  a  tangent.  "  Has  that  old 
wretch  been  after  him  lately  ?" 

"  If  you  mean  Elder  Griswell,  no ;  I  believe  not 
since  last  week.  The  elder  is  as  much  afraid  of  Over- 
dale  as  you  are,  my  dear.  I  understand  that  now, 
as  he  can't  get  Bellam  to  go  back  to  him  and  work  out 
his  debt,  and  can't  collect  the  money  of  him,  he's  going 
to  sue  Overdale.  He  regards  him  as  harboring  his 
fugitive  slave,  but  he  doesn't  like  coming  in  reach  of 
him.  Bellam  wasn't  his  slave  exactly,  either ;  only  his 
peon." 

Ann  sighed.  "  If  you  get  the  right  word  for  a  thing, 
you  feel  almost  as  good  as  if  you  had  righted  it,  Owen." 

"  But  peon  is  so  uncommonly  right.  It's  about  the 
only  good  thing  we've  ever  got  out  of  that  rascally  war." 

Owen  never  spoke  less  violently  of  the  Mexican  War ; 
but  he  valued  the  service  which  the  volunteers  had 
done  in  bringing  back  the  name  of  a  system  of  labor 
among  the  Mexicans  so  exactly  fitting  the  case  of  Bel 
lam  and  Elder  Griswell. 

The  saw-miller  had  worked  on  the  Elder's  farm  for 
years  as  his  insolvent  debtor,  and  at  the  end  of  each 
year  was  no  nearer  industrial  freedom  than  at  the  be 
ginning;  the  Elder's  advances  were  always  a  little 

43 


NEW    LEAF    MILLS 

greater  than  Bellamys  wages,  as  they  might  easily  be. 
But  one  day  when  Bellam  came  to  the  mill  with  his 
grist,  he  opened  his  heart  to  Overdale,  and  asked  him 
what  he  would  do  in  his  place. 

"  Hell !"  the  miller  said.    "  Walk  off." 

The  idea  worked  in  Bellamys  intelligence,  and  he 
walked  off  between  two  days,  or  on  a  Sunday  when  the 
Elder  had  gone  to  church.  He  reported  to  Overdale 
with  his  wife  and  children,  and  his  poor  belongings  on 
the  cart  drawn  by  the  rangy  colt  which  he  had  somehow 
kept  his  own  in  spite  of  the  Elder.  Overdale  could 
not  be  bothered  at  the  time  by  the  implications  of  the 
case;  but  he  felt  bound  by  the  counsel  he  had  given, 
and  he  told  Bellam  to  drive  over  to  the  empty  cabin 
on  the  island  and  put  up  there  till  he  could  think. 

"  But  if  the  Elder  comes  after  me,"  the  escaped  peon 
entreated. 

"  When  he  hears  tell  where  you  are  I  reckon  he 
won't  come,"  the  miller  said;  and  after  he  had  time  to 
hear  from  the  Larrabees  Bellam  was  put  to  work  in 
the  sawmill. 

The  picturesqueness  of  the  incident  had  charmed 
Powell  from  his  first  knowledge  of  it.  When  he  sub 
jected  it  to  examination  in  the  light  of  the  Doctrines, 
he  had  found  it  a  singularly  beautiful  proof  of  those 
Remains  of  Good  in  a  perverse  soul  like  the  miller's,  by 
which  his  chances  in  another  life  might  be  hopefully 
regarded.  His  action  might  be  merely  an  effect  of 
Natural  Good,  and  was  to  be  esteemed  only  as  such,  or 
it  might  be  an  Influx  from  the  Spiritual  World  moving 
I  him  to  a  right  course  in  contravention  of  temperament. 
•  Powell  had  often  recurred  to  it  in  talk  with  his  wife, 
I  and  always  with  a  softening  toward  the  miller  and  a 
trust  to  the  Remains  in  him  which  she  could  not 

share. 

44 


NEW    LEAF    MILLS 

"  You  needn't  be  troubled,  my  dear,"  he  ended  one 
of  their  talks.  "  I  won't  take  any  chances  with  Over- 
dale,  or,  for  the  matter  of  that,  with  Bellam,  either — 
that  is,  I  won't  be  ruled  by  anything  he  says ;  I'll  only 
be  ruled  by  what  you  say." 

He  laughed  again,  and  his  wife  sadly  with  him,  and 
she  watched  him  anxiously  from  the  back  door  of  the 
cabin  as  he  made  his  way  among  the  logs  lying  round 
the  sawmill,  like  a  herd  of  saurians  crept  up  from  the 
waters  and  sleeping  on  the  muddy  shore.  The  tram 
way,  which  from  time  to  time  carried  one  of  them  up 
into  the  mill,  passed  over  the  gate,  letting  the  water  in 
on  the  wheel,  and  Powell  now  mounted  the  track  and 
disappeared  within.  He  came  out  with  Bellam  and 
stood  talking  with  him  in  the  wide  low  doorway,  while 
the  yellow  heads  of  Overdale's  children  bobbed  about 
in  play  along  the  banks  of  the  head-race.  Then  a  cry 
came  from  the  children,  and  they  ran  toward  the  mil 
ler's  house,  where  their  mother  stood  idly  watching 
them.  At  the  same  time  Ann  saw  her  husband  break 
from  Bellam's  side  and  jump  from  the  mill  door  to 
the  bank  and  stoop  over  the  race  close  to  the  head- 
gate.  He  rose  with  a  child  in  his  arms,  and  started  with 
it  toward  the  miller's  house.  She  began  running  to 
him,  but  before  she  reached  him,  stumbling  over  the 
rough  ground  in  her  heedless  dismay,  Owen  was  coming 
back  to  her  laughing  and  flapping  the  water  from  his 
clothes. 

"  I  haven't  been  in  the  head-race  myself,"  he  called, 
gaily,  "  but  it  was  almost  as  wet  work  getting  that  little 
scamp  home  after  I  got  him  out.  A  moment  more  and 
he  would  have  been  in  on  the  sawmill  wheel,  and 
then—" 

She  would  not  let  him  stop  more  than  to  explain 

that  one  of  the  miller's  boys  had  tumbled  into  the  race ; 

45 


NEW    LEAF    MILLS 

but  as  she  hurried  him  to  change  his  clothes  »he  under 
stood  how  he  had  saved  the  child's  life. 

"  And  his  mother — what  did  his  mother  say  when 
you  took  him  to  her?"  she  required,  after  she  gave 
Owen  a  dry  coat  and  hung  his  wet  one  over  a  chair 
before  the  fire. 

Owen  laughed  again.  "  She  didn't  say  anything ;  she 
spanked  him." 

"  But  you — you ;  I  meant  you." 

"Well,  she  didn't  say  anything  to  me,  either." 

Ann  Powell  made  "  Tchk!"  and  did  not  speak;  but 
he  knew  that  at  the  back  of  her  mind  she  was  dis 
appointed;  he  knew  she  had  hoped  that  somehow 
this  event  would  have  been  the  promise  of  bringing 
about  a  better  feeling  between  him  and  the  savage 
whom  she  feared  for  him.  He  would  not  make  her 
own  it:  he  only  suggested,  "Well,  perhaps  Overdale 
will  say  something." 


IX 


THE  winter  was  wearing  away  without  change  in  the 
lives  of  the  Powells  toward  immediate  fulfilment  of 
the  hopes  which  had  brought  them  to  E"ew  Leaf  Mills. 
Ann  thought  her  husband  lapsing,  with  his  amiable  ac 
ceptance  of  the  order  of  Providence,  more  and  more  into 
a  country  drudge.  He  worked  like  a  laborer  at  any 
thing  he  could  find  to  do  about  the  mills,  and  she  fancied 
that  with  his  growing  content  in  the  actual  situation 
the  discontent  of  the  neighbors  was  growing;  she  sus 
pected  irony  in  the  tones  of  the  women's  greetings  when 
she  met  them;  she  felt  mocking  in  the  slouch  of  the 
men's  hats  and  shoulders  as  they  bestrode  their  grists 
to  and  from  the  mill,  and  turned  their  glowering  or 
sneering  faces  toward  her  cabin  windows.  Perhaps  the 
tones  were  not  sarcastic  or  the  faces  derisive;  but  if 
they  seemed  so  it  was  enough,  and  Powell  could  not 
persuade  her  against  it  with  all  his  cheerfulness.  Once, 
in  the  darkest  hours  of  January,  a  New  Church  min 
ister  came,  and  stayed  over  a  Sunday ;  and  the  familiar 
talk  of  the  Doctrines  went  on  in  the  old  way,  with  the 
wonted  jokes  and  stories  in  kindly  satire  of  the  Old 
Church  superstitions.  For  the  time  she  could  almost 
believe  herself  back  in  Tuskingum,  but  she  could  hardly 
share  Owen's  regret  that  there  had  not  been  time  to 
notify  the  neighbors  and  have  them  gather  in  the  mill 
for  a  E"ew  Church  sermon;  he  had  long  given  up  his 

scheme  of  a  Sunday-school  there,  which  he  once  had. 

47 


NEW    LEAF    MILLS 

The  roads,  with  the  changes  of  snow  and  rain  and 
the  freezing  and  thawing,  were  now  so  bad  that  Felix 
could  not  drive  out  to  see  his  brother,  as  he  had  done 
every  fortnight  in  better  weather.  He  came  only  once 
during  the  month,  and  his  wife  did  not  come  with  him. 
Owen  was  as  gay  as  at  the  other  visits ;  and  that  night, 
after  the  older  boys  had  gone  to  bed  and  the  younger 
children  had  fallen  asleep  on  the  stone  hearth,  he  tuned 
his  harp  and  drowned  the  discords  he  extorted  from  it 
in  his  songs  of  "  Roy's  Wife  "  and  "  Flow  gently,  Sweet 
Afton  "  and  "  Banks  and  Braes  of  Bonny  Doon."  But 
as  he  was  rolling  out : 

"Then  merrily  we'll  sing 

As  the  storm  rattles  o'er  us, 
Till  the  dear  shieling  ring 
With  the  light,  lilting  chorus—" 

his  wife  called  to  him: 

"  Owen,  Owen,  for  goodness'  sake  stop !" 

He  stopped,  with  his  hands  on  the  harp-strings. 
"  Why,  I  won't  wake  them." 

"  No,  but  you'll  drive  me  crazy.  I  don't  know  how 
you  can  bear  to  sing.  How  can  you  bear  to  live  on  in 
this  hovel,  with  no  prospect  of  anything  else  ?" 

"  No  prospect  ?"  he  returned. 

"  No !  We  are  doomed  to  live  and  die  here,  with 
that  wicked  wretch  hating  you  over  there  in  the  mill 
that  will  never  be  anything  but  a  grist-mill.  Didn't 
you  notice  how  Felix  avoided  the  subject  when  you 
mentioned  putting  in  the  paper  machinery  ?" 

"  I  didn't  notice  it.  But  I'm  sure  you're  mistaken 
if  you  think  he  isn't  going  forward  with  the  enterprise ; 
and  as  for  our  living  on  in  the  cabin,  you  know  that 
I've  got  out  all  the  shingles  for  the  new  house,  with 
most  of  the  weather-boarding.  We  are  beginning  on 

48 


NEW    LEAF    MILLS 

the  oak  flooring  now,  and  I  will  have  that  kiln-dried  if 
we're  late  with  it.  But  we  won't  be.  As  soon  as  the 
frost  is  out  of  the  ground  we  will  put  in  the  founda 
tions,  and  the  carpenters  will  have  the  timbers  ready 
for  the  raising  in  June.  You  mustn't  be  downhearted 
about  it;  everything  is  going  finely.  But  I  know! 
You  are  run  down.  It's  been  a  hard  time  for  you. 
Ann,  you  must  have  a  girl.  I  wonder  if  Felix  or  his 
wife  couldn't  get  on  the  track  of  Eosy  Hefmyer?" 

"  Oh,  a  girl !"  Ann  retorted.  "  Do  you  think  a  girl 
could  take  the  real  burden  off  of  me  ?" 

"  Yes,  the  real  burden ;  but  you  must  bear  the  un 
real  burden  yourself.  I  wish  I  could  bear  it  for  you." 
Ann  began  to  cry  softly.  Owen  said,  "  Oh,  my  poor 
girl,  my  poor  girl!"  and  between  her  crying  and  his 
coaxing  she  comforted  herself. 

"  Oh,  I  can  get  along,  Owen.  You  needn't  worry 
about  me.  But  you  must  let  me  give  way  now  and 
then.  I  only  want  to  know  that  you  haven't  forgotten 
what  we  came  for." 

"  Oh,  my  dear,  don't  you  suppose  I  think  of  it  all 
the  time  ?" 

"  Besides,  I  don't  believe  they  could  find  Rosy. 
With  that  old  wretch  of  a  mother  of  hers,  there's  no 
telling  what's  become  of  her  by  this  time.  She  always 
said  she  would  come  back  if  I  wanted  her." 

It  would  have  been  natural  in  Owen  to  allow  the 
affair  to  go  with  that,  but  Ann's  listless  resignation 
remained  after  her  rebellious  outburst,  and  he  saw  that 
something  must  really  be  done  for  her.  There  came 
with  February  one  of  those  interludes  of  soft  weather 
which  the  midwinter  knows  in  that  region.  The  birds 
returned  as  if  it  were  spring,  bluebirds  and  robins; 
the  frost  came  out  of  the  ground,  and  the  roads  dried  up. 

"  Now,  Ann,"  Powell  said  one  morning,  "  you  had 

49 


NEW    LEAF    MILLS 

better  take  advantage  of  this  open  weather  and  go  away 
for  a  while." 

He  could  see  that  the  thought  had  been  in  her  mind, 
too,  for  all  she  said :  "  Where  can  I  go  ?  And  leave 
you  and  the  children  here  ?" 

"  Not  all  of  them.  Take  Dick  and  the  buggy  and 
go  down  to  Middleville,  and  see  father  and  Jim's  fam 
ily.  You  can  hurry  Jim  up  about  coming  here,  and 
they  will  all  be  glad  to  see  you." 

Ann's  despair  lost  its  blackness  in  the  notion  of  a 
family  visit.  "  I  might  do  that,"  she  consented,  "  if 
I  could  only  believe  that  Jim  was  ever  going  to  come." 

"  Well,  ask.  It  will  do  him  good  to  be  stirred  up. 
He  ought  to  have  sold  out  by  this  time.  Only  don't 
put  too  bright  a  face  on  things  here." 

Ann  laughed  forlornly,  but  his  teasing  saved  her 
further  regret.  "  I  believe  in  my  heart  I  can  really 
do  something,"  she  said,  defiantly;  and  in  the  morn 
ing  she  started  with  her  son  on  the  forty-mile  drive  to 
Middleville. 

She  was  aware  only  of  the  impossibility  of  staying 
any  longer  at  'New  Leaf  Mills  without  going  mad.  She 
did  not  forecast  the  future  so  far  as  to  imagine  how 
she  should  keep  sane  after  she  came  back.  She  was 
at  that  point  of  homesickness  when  she  was  willing  to 
forsake  every  one  dear  to  her  for  a  glimpse  of  the  life 
from  which  she  had  been  parted:  simple  as  it  was,  in 
contrast  with  the  social  squalor  she  had  fallen  into,  it 
was  rich  and  fine  and  beautiful.  She  longed  to  escape 
from  her  household  back  to  the  town  which  seemed  to 
her  full  of  the  things,  the  cane-seat-chair  things,  that 
made  living  worth  while.  Tuskingum  had  become  her 
dream,  her  poetry,  and  the  day  that  she  now  passed 
with  Felix  and  his  wife  was  the  realization  of  all  that 

she  had  imagined  of  it.     She  sat  up  late  with  them 

50 


NEW    LEAF    MILLS 

in  the  pretty  parlor,  with  its  Venetian  blinds  and  lace 
curtains,  and  they  played,  Felix  on  the  flute  and 
Jessamy  on  the  piano,  and  she  listened  in  her  corner 
of  the  rosewood  sofa.  In  the  morning  she  went  to  a 
store  with  Jessamy,  and  Jessamy  bought  her  a  shawl, 
so  that  she  could  keep  warm  if  she  and  Dick  were 
driving  in  the  cool  of  the  evening  or  the  weather 
turned;  and  after  the  midday  dinner,  which  the  hired 
girl  had  cooked  without  the  least  help  from  Jessamy, 
Ann  started  gaily  on  her  journey  again. 

Jessamy  was  so  much  younger  that  she  could  daugh 
ter  Ann,  and  the  boy  beside  her  on  the  buggy  seat  was 
so  old  that  Ann  could  almost  sister  him.  She  talked 
gravely  and  confidentially  to  Dick  of  the  state  of  things 
at  New  Leaf  Mills,  and  how  little  his  father,  with  his 
hopefulness  and  his  trusting  goodness,  was  fitted  to 
cope  with  the  rude  conditions,  and  with  the  brutal  men 
who  could  not  understand  him  or  value  him.  She 
criticized  Owen  in  her  mind,  but  tenderly,  being  at  a 
distance  from  him ;  and  she  said :  "  He  is  the  best 
man  in  the  world ;  I  know  that  well  enough ;  the  will- 
ingest  to  help  others.  He  hasn't  a  selfish  thought  or  a 
mean  one.  But  oh,  if  he  would  only  be  a  little  more 
afraid!  I  wish  he  could  have  some  of  my  fear.  But 
he  is  so  contented,  and  so  sure  it  will  all  come  out 
right.  If  only  he  would  lose  heart  a  little  I  could 
have  some." 

Richard  tried  to  comfort  her,  but  her  spirits  sank 
when  they  got  beyond  the  outskirts  of  Tuskingum 
among  the  high  woods  and  the  lonely  fields  again,  and 
she  had  to  recover  herself  through  tears.  Then  she 
was  cheerfuler,  and  as  they  drove  along  over  the  good 
turnpike  road  she  began  to  wonder  what  Jim's  wife 
would  say  when  she  saw  them  stopping  at  her  door 
in  Middleville. 

51 


NEW    LEAF    MILLS 

"  Well,  she  won't  see  us  till  to-morrow,  mother,"  the 
boy  said. 

"Yes,  we  will  have  to  pass  the  night  at  Shawnee," 
she  assented.  "  I  was  at  the  tavern  there  with  your 
father  once,  and  it's  a  good  piece  from  there  to  Middle- 
ville.  I  suppose  we  will  go  to  your  grandfather's,  any 
way." 

It  did  not  need  the  surprise  they  gave  their  kindred 
to  win  their  welcome.  The  old  people  were  not  visibly 
moved,  the  grandfather  from  his  gravity  or  the  grand 
mother  from  her  placidity;  they  were  not  only  old, 
but  they  had  the  quiet  of  the  Old  World  in  their  greet 
ing;  Jim's  wife  was  noisily  glad  to  see  them,  and 
romped  around  Ann  in  claiming  half  their  visit.  She 
wanted  to  hear  all  about  the  mills ;  she  was  just  crazy, 
she  said,  to  have  Jim  sell  out  and  go  there  at  once; 
she  was  sick  of  Middleville. 

She  almost  made  Ann  believe  that  she  was  a  for 
tunate  woman  in  getting  there  so  soon,  and  she  talked 
as  if  the  new  house  was  almost  finished.  When  Jim 
came  from  his  store  he  grinned  at  her  excitement.  He 
said  he  didn't  believe  he  could  ever  sell  out.  "  Then 
you  give  your  old  business  away,"  his  wife  said;  ff  Fm 
going  to  New  Leaf  Mills.  Ann  '11  take  me  back  with 
her,  I  know." 

"  How  is  it,  Ann  ?"  Jim  asked.  "  Do  they  admit 
any  but  Bobolitionists  yet  ?  Let  down  the  bars  to  the 
world's  people  ?" 

He  was  anti-slavery,  like  all  the  Powells,  but  he  liked 
to  say  Bobolitionist  for  Abolitionist;  the  sound  pleased 
him,  and  he  enjoyed  the  shock  it  gave  his  father  by  its 
irreverence. 

Ann  and  Eichard  stayed  three  days,  and  she  enjoyed 
every  moment  of  it.  Sally  made  a  company  tea  for  her, 

and  asked  a  dozen  other  ladies,  old  and  young.     She 

52 


NEW    LEAF    MILLS 

let  Ann  help  get  the  tea:  stewed  chicken,  cold  ham, 
shortened  biscuit,  boiled  potatoes,  sweet  tomato  pickles, 
pound-cake,  cold  slaw,  and  coffee.  Throughout  the 
feast  she  stormed  down  the  praises  of  her  guests  with 
apologies  for  everything. 

Ann  noticed  that  the  dishes,  which  were  nicer  than 
hers,  were  some  of  them  cracked ;  the  spout  of  the  coffee 
pot  was  nicked,  and  Sally  had  no  cane-seat  chairs  in 
her  parlor ;  only  yellow-painted  Windsor  chairs.  When 
Ann  started  home  Jim  put  a  canvased  ham  in  the  back 
of  the  buggy.  Grandmother  Powell  gave  them  a  lunch 
of  her  nice  bread  and  butter,  with  sugar-cakes  for  Dick 
and  the  children  at  home. 

It  was  a  happy  time,  and  Dick  thought  they  could 
drive  the  whole  way  back  to  Tuskingum  in  one  day. 
But  the  heat  increased,  and  the  horse  flagged.  They 
had  not  got  as  far  as  Shawnee  when  the  wind  rose 
and  blew  the  sky  full  of  clouds.  The  thunder-heads 
mounted,  and  before  sunset  it  began  to  lighten,  and  it 
grew  so  dark  that  they  could  scarcely  see;  but  they 
followed  the  white  turnpike.  Ann  was  scared,  and  she 
was  troubled  about  Owen  and  the  children  at  the  mills ; 
but  when  in  the  blackness  they  came  upon  a  man  in 
the  road,  mixed  up  with  three  horses  he  was  trying  to 
lead  and  at  the  same  time  pick  up  his  hat,  which  was 
blown  off,  she  had  to  laugh  with  Dick. 

The  laugh  seemed  to  carry  away  her  care.  She  made 
Dick  stop  at  the  first  house  and  ask  if  they  might  pass 
the  night.  The  man  of  the  house  said  they  might,  and 
when  he  had  helped  Dick  put  up  his  horse  he  led  them 
in  to  his  family,  who  were  gathered  round  a  wood-fire 
on  the  hearth ;  and  while  Ann  dried  herself  at  the  blaze 
her  thoughts  went  again  to  the  family  at  New  Leaf 
Mills  in  anxiety  for  its  safety;  it  seemed  to  her  she 

had  been  recreant  to  them  all. 

53 


NEW    LEAF    MILLS 

When  the  morning  came,  clear  and  cold  after  the 
storm,  she  decided  that  they  would  go  straight  on  to 
the  mills  without  stopping  at  Tuskingum;  she  did  not 
wish  to  impose  upon  Jessamy,  she  said.  Her  heart 
did  not  go  down,  as  she  expected,  at  the  sight  of  the 
mills.  Powell  was  waiting  at  the  door  of  the  cabin, 
and  the  children  ran  out  to  welcome  her  and  see  what 
she  had  brought  them.  She  felt  a  glow  of  happiness 
such  as  she  had  never  known  at  iN"ew  Leaf  before,  and 
she  promised  herself  not  to  give  way  again. 

"  Well,  I  see  it  has  done  you  good,"  Powell  said, 
with  a  look  at  her. 

After  a  few  days'  cold  the  weather  turned  warm 
again,  and  Felix  came  out  sooner  than  Ann  could  have 
hoped,  and  Jessamy  came  with  him.  He  went  with 
Owen  to  the  grist-mill,  and  looked  it  over  with  him; 
he  said  he  had  found  a  Fourdrinier  machine  which 
could  be  had  cheap  at  second  hand,  and  he  would  like 
to  see  if  it  could  be  put  in  without  too  much  change. 
They  came  upon  Over  dale,  who  gave  them  no  greeting 
before  he  could  lurk  into  his  den.  Felix  did  not  notice 
his  rudeness,  but  it  hurt  Owen,  who  wished  to  be  on 
gentle  terms  with  the  whole  world  and  had  not  his 
brother's  business  preoccupations  to  defend  him.  On 
their  way  back  to  the  cabin  he  spoke  of  his  vain  efforts 
to  get  into  kindlier  relations  with  the  miller. 

"  I  don't  believe  I'd  worry  about  him,  Owen,"  Felix 
said.  "  Of  course,  he  thinks  he  will  be  out  of  a  place 
when  we  make  the  change,  but  we  can  work  him  into 
our  scheme  somehow.  I  feel  more  hopeful  about  it 
since  I've  looked  over  the  mill." 

"  Do  tell  Ann  so !"  his  brother  entreated. 

"  I  will.  It's  been  a  hard  experience  for  Ann.  She 
ought  to  have  some  help  in  her  work.  She  ought  to 

have  a  girl." 

54 


NEW    LEAF    MILLS 

"  That's  what  I've  been  saying.  I've  been  wondering 
if  you  could  find  out  where  Kosy  Ilefmyer  is." 

They  had  come  to  the  cabin,  where  the  sisters-in-law 
stood  before  the  door  in  the  sun.  Ann  was  admiring 
the  fashions  of  the  younger  woman  with  unenvious 
pleasure,  asking  where  she  got  her  bonnet  and  whether 
she  had  trimmed  it  herself. 

Felix  called  to  her :  "  Ann,  you  remember  that  girl 
of  yours  you  liked  so  much — Kosy  Ilefmyer  ?" 

"  Did  Owen  ask  you  to  hunt  her  up  ?    It's  too  bad." 

"No,  he  didn't;  but  she's  hunted  herself  up.  She 
came  to  me  at  the  store.  She  wants  to  get  somewhere 
that  her  mother  won't  find  her;  she's  just  left  a  place 
to  get  rid  of  her.  I  told  her  about  you  here ;  and  she's 
crazy  to  come  to  you." 

"Oh,  Felix!"  Ann  could  say  no  more;  but  peni 
tence  for  all  her  impatience  with  Providence  and  her 
husband  glowed  in  her  heart. 

"  I  could  have  brought  her  with  us  to-day,  but  Jes- 
samy  thought  there  wasn't  room  for  three  in  the  buggy." 

"  Indeed,  Ann,  that  wasn't  the  reason.  I  thought 
you  ought  to  have  the  chance  of  saying  whether  you 
wanted  her  first,  and  I  promised  Mr.  Powell "  —for 
so  his  wife  always  called  Felix  to  himself  as  well  as 
others — "that  I  wouldn't  tell  you  about  it.  And 
have  I?" 

"  Not  a  single  word,  Jessamy ;  but  if  you  had  known 
what  a  blessing  it  would  be  to  me,  you  could  have. 
How  can  she  get  here,  Felix?  When  can  she  come?" 

"  To-morrow,  if  you  want.  She  can  come  by  the 
stage  to  Spring  Grove,  and  you  can  send  for  her  there, 
can't  you  ?" 

"  Send  ?  I  would  go  and  carry  her  here."  Ann  had 
got  her  breath  now. 

"  Well,  then,  that's  settled.     Perhaps  you'll  like  to 

55 


NEW    LEAF    MILLS 

know  that  we  can  put  the  Fourdrinier  machine  into  the 
mill  with  very  little  change." 

"  You  can?    And  when —    But  I  won't  ask." 

Felix  smiled,  with  a  cast  of  his  eye  at  his  brother. 
"  Owen's  thought  of  some  improvements  he  can  make 
in  it  already." 

"  To  be  sure."  Ann  recognized  the  joke  with  a 
laugh.  "  Well,  it  does  seem  as  if  the  heavens  were 
opening." 

"  The  Pit's  been  yawning  a  good  while,  Ann  thinks. 
She  thinks  it's  time  the  heavens  took  their  turn,"  Owen 
said. 

Jessamy  watched  her  sister-in-law's  face  with  shin 
ing  eyes.  She  turned  to  her  husband.  "  I  didn't  tell 
her  about  the  Fourdrinier  machine,  either." 

"  That's  more  self-denial  than  you  asked  of  yourself, 
Jessamy." 

"  I  thought  I'd  better  wait  till  you  could  see  a  place 
for  it  in  the  mill." 

"  Well,  Ann,  I've  found  a  second-hand  machine,  very 
good  and  very  cheap,"  Felix  said. 

She  could  only  entreat  him,  "  Oh,  have  you  ?"  and 
then  they  all  began  to  talk  about  it.  They  had  talked 
about  the  Fourdrinier  machine  so  much  that  the 
sisters-in-law  believed  they  knew  what  it  was  like; 
the  brothers  really  knew,  and  Owen  knew  best.  He 
explained  that  his  improvements  were  no  joke,  and 
specified  them. 

"  Well,  now,  come  in  and  have  something  to  eat 
before  you  go,  if  you  must  go,"  Ann  said;  and  she 
led  the  way  indoors. 

They  had  a  joyful  meal  together.  The  little  girls 
helped  their  mother  get  it,  and  then  asked  to  go  with 
their  brothers  and  play  Indians  on  the  island.  In  the 
talk  the  elders  were  left  to  themselves.  Felix  seemed 

56 


NEW    LEAF    MILLS 

in  no  haste  to  leave;  he  and  Owen  recalled  again  the 
jokes  and  joys  of  their  boyhood. 

When  Felix  rose  from  the  table  his  wife  said :  "  Now, 
Ann,  I'm  going  to  ask  you  to  let  him  lie  down  on  your 
bed  a  minute  before  we  start.  It  does  him  so  much 
good  to  get  a  little  nap  after  dinner." 

"  Oh,  I  don't  need  a  nap,"  Felix  protested. 

But  Ann  said :  "  Take  him  right  in,  Jessamy.  I'll 
be  redding  up  the  table ;  I  won't  make  any  noise." 

In  a  little  while  Jessamy  came  out,  leaving  the 
door  ajar.  "  He  wants  me  to  sing,"  she  said,  in  a 
low  voice.  "  I  can't,  very  well,  without  the  piano, 
but—" 

Owen  cleared  his  throat;  his  wife  thought  he  was 
going  to  say  he  would  accompany  Jessamy  on  his  harp, 
and  she  frowned  at  him;  Jessamy  was  swallowing  as 
if  she  were  choking  down  a  sob ;  then  she  sang  "  The 
Watcher": 

"A  watcher  pale  and  weary 

Looked  forth  with  anxious  eye." 

It  was  a  song  that  every  one  sang  in  those  days,  a 
wail  of  grief  in  which  happy  young  people  poured  out 
their  joy.  Jessamy  sang  it  several  times.  When  she 
ended  they  none  of  them  spoke  for  a  while. 

The  sisters-in-law  parted  sadly;  they  said  they  did 
not  know  why  they  should  cry:  everything  was  so 
promising  now.  The  brothers  took  leave  with  gay  hope 
fulness. 

Ann  and  Owen  watched  their  guests  across  the  tail- 
race  and  out  of  sight.  Then  she  asked,  "  How  did  you 
think  he  looked,  Owen  ?" 

"  Why,  uncommonly  well." 

"  She's  willing  to  have  him  come  and  live  here  now. 
She  thinks  it  will  be  better  here  than  in  town."  She 

57 


NEW    LEAF    MILLS 

scanned  her  husband's  face.  "  Owen,  Felix  hat  had  a 
hemorrhage." 

"  A  hemorrhage!"  Powell's  face  twitched  pitifully; 
then  the  light  of  temperamental  hope  glowed  over  it. 
"  Oh,  well,  it  will  be  all  right  with  him  by  spring.  It 
isn't  as  if  it  had  been  in  the  fall.  And  isn't  it  fortunate 
he  should  have  such  a  place  as  the  mills  to  come  to? 
We  must  hurry  forward  the  new  house  now.  We  can 
easily  take  them  in  with  us  there." 

"Yes."  Ann  said;  "there'll  be  no  trouble  about 
that.  But  do  hurry  it,  Owen !  It  does  seem  to  me  you 
have  been  such  a  long  while  about  it.  These  delays, 
they  almost  kill  me." 

"  Yes,  poor  girl,  I  know  that,"  Powell  said.  "  De 
pend  upon  it,  I'll  hurry  things  forward."  Ann  went 
into  the  other  room  and  left  him  to  cover  the  fire.  His 
heart  ached  for  Felix,  but  he  could  not  refuse  the 
comfort  he  found  in  the  solid  hickory  chunk  which  he 
saw  would  make  a  glorious  bed  of  coals.  When  he  had 
bedded  it  deep  in  the  ashes,  he  went  to  the  cabin  door 
for  a  look  at  the  night.  The  sky  bristled  with  stars, 
and  he  thought  how  the  coals  would  bristle  in  the 
morning.  He  felt  the  sweet  unity  of  creation,  the 
little  things  and  the  great  things,  and  he  felt  that  life 
and  death  in  the  measureless  scheme  were  the  same. 
Ann,  with  her  homesickness,  was  as  important  to  the 
Maker  of  the  world  as  the  largest  of  these  flaming 
planets ;  He  would  care  for  her  as  He  cared  for  them. 
Powell  looked  across  at  the  pretty  place  where  the  new 
house  was  to  stand,  and  he  could  almost  see  it  stand 
ing  there.  Already  Felix  had  come  to  them  practically 
well ;  and  they  were  all  living  there  together,  and  ISTew 
Leaf  Mills  was  fulfilling  every  promise  of  its  imagined 
usefulness. 


THERE  was  a  typical  delay  next  morning  when 
Powell  sent  his  eldest  son  to  meet  the  stage  at  Spring 
Grove  and  fetch  Rosy  Hefmyer.  But  it  was  not  his 
fault,  exactly,  that  the  only  horse  which  consented  to 
be  caught  in  the  pasture  for  the  service  should  be  found 
to  have  cast  a  shoe  when  she  fell  captive  to  a  peck  meas 
ure  of  bran.  "You  must  drive  fast,  Richard,"  he 
instructed  his  son,  "  so  as  not  to  keep  Rosy  waiting  at 
the  Grove;  she  won't  know  what  to  do  after  the  stage 
gets  in,  but  you  must  drive  very  carefully.  Remember, 
the  mare  has  no  shoe  on  her  off  hind  foot.  You'd  better 
go  the  river  road;  it's  longer,  but  it's  soft  dirt  the 
whole  way,  and  there  are  a  good  many  stony  spots  on 
the  hill  road." 

With  whatever  speed  he  made,  Richard  did  not  get 
back  to  the  mills  till  Rosy  had  been  there  an  hour. 
She  had  come  with  Captain  Bickler  in  his  open  buggy ; 
he  had  found  out  at  Spring  Grove,  where  he  had  his 
law-office,  that  she  wanted  to  go  to  the  mills,  and,  as 
he  was  going  that  way,  he  brought  her.  He  explained 
the  fact  to  Owen,  who  stood  with  his  hand  on  the 
buggy  wheel  talking  politics  with  Bickler  after  thank 
ing  him  for  his  neighborly  act.  They  did  not  disagree 
widely.  In  his  zeal  for  his  own  nomination  for  the 
legislature  Captain  Bickler  did  not  widely  disagree 
with  any  voter  of  the  Whig  ticket;  and  though  Owen 
would  naturally  have  disliked  a  man  who  had  got  his 
title  of  captain  in  the  Mexican  War,  it  was  in  Bickler's 
5  59 


NEW    LEAF    MILLS 

favor  that  his  company  had  been  mustered  in  so  late 
that  he  never  went  to  the  front.  What  Owen  wished 
to  make  sure  of  was  that  Bickler  favored  a  strong  anti- 
slavery  platform  for  the  Whig  party  at  the  next  State 
convention.  There  seemed  no  douht  of  that,  he  reported 
to  his  wife,  while  confessing  his  impression  that  Bickler 
seemed  rather  a  slippery  character. 

"  Well,  he's  brought  Rosy,  at  any  rate,'7  Ann  said, 
looking  off  to  the  hill  where  the  girl  was  playing  with 
the  children  among  the  fallen  leaves,  which  the  sun  of 
the  warm,  dry  spell  had  crisped  again.  "  She's  just 
crazy  about  the  place.7' 

Ann's  motherly  heart  had  not  ceased  to  glow  with 
the  welcome  she  had  given  the  girl  when  Rosy  jumped 
down  from  the  buggy  and  ignored  her  obligation  to 
Captain  Bickler  in  her  shy  escape  to  Ann's  arms.  She 
began  to  romp  with  the  children  as  soon  as  she  put 
her  little  bundle  of  clothes  into  the  house. 

"  I  never  expected  to  have  you  again,  Rosy,"  the 
mother  said.  "  How  well  you  do  look !"  she  said  the 
next  thing.  She  recognized  the  girl's  beauty  by  this 
tribute  to  her  health:  her  blue,  sweet  eyes,  her  cheeks 
like  red  peonies,  and  her  smooth  mass  of  yellow  hair, 
her  firm,  straight  features,  and  her  strong,  full  young 
figure.  She  was  rather  short,  but  Mrs.  Powell  did  not 
notice  that. 

"  Well,  now,  you'll  feel  more  at  home,"  Powell  said 
to  his  wife. 

"  Oh  yes,"  she  answered.  "  I  have  nothing  to  ask 
for  now.  But  we  mustn't  stand  here  talking.  I  won't 
have  a  moment's  peace  till  we  get  the  frame  of  the  new 
house  up.  Do  hurry  the  stuff  out,  Owen."  She  was 
always  saying  something  like  that.  "  I  declare,  when 
I  think  of  Felix  and  Jessamy  coming  I  can't  wait.  It 

was  like  him  to  look  Rosy  up  for  me.    He  was  thinking 

60 


NEW    LEAF    MILLS 

of  me  when  he  ought  to  have  been  thinking  of  him 
self,  poor  boy," 

"  There  is  a  great  deal  of  Natural  Good  in  Felix/' 
Owen  allowed. 

He  started  toward  the  sawmill;  and  after  a  moment 
of  smiling  silence  Ann  ran  over  to  Rosy  and  the  chil 
dren  at  the  foot  of  the  hill.  She  pretended  to  catch 
up  a  stick  from  the  ground  as  she  came  near,  and  she 
called  out :  "  You  good-for-nothing  things !  When  do 
you  suppose  we'll  have  dinner?  And  Rosy  the  worst 
of  you !  Come  straight  along  home  with  you." 

The  children  shrieked  joyfully  and  ran  before  her. 

Rosy  stopped  for  her,  panting.  "  Oh,  Mrs.  Powell, 
it  just  sets  me  crazy;  it's  so  nice  here.  It  seems  as  if 
I  couldn't  bear  to  go  into  the  house  yet.  But  I  reckon 
I  got  to.  You  don't  want  a  hired  girl  to  stay  outdoors 
and  help  your  children  play."  She  laughed  at  her 
own  joke,  and  brushed  away  the  dead  leaves  which  the 
children  had  heaped  over  her  dress. 

Mrs.  Powell  took  some  twigs  from  the  girl's  tumbled 
hair.  "  Indeed,  indeed,  I'd  like  to  play  with  you  all 
myself.  But  I  suppose  you'd  better  come  and  see 
where  we're  going  to  put  you.  I  don't  believe  you'll 
think  it's  indoors  much.  It's  a  good  thing  we  had 
anywhere  for  you,  but  I've  been  at  Mr.  Powell  ever 
since  we  came  to  put  up  an  outside  kitchen  for  me,  and 
that's  where  you're  going  to  live;  he  only  got  it  done 
last  week,  and  there's  no  stove  in  it  yet.  When  we  get 
the  stove  I  reckon  you'll  have  to  camp  out  in  the  corn 
field." 

"  Well,  I  wouldn't  like  anything  better.  It  seems 
like  as  if  it  was  summer  a'ready." 

"  Yes,  it's  been  so  for  three  or  four  days  now.  I 
heard  a  blackbird  this  morning.  But  he'll  be  sorry  he 

came  yet." 

61 


NEW    LEAF    MILLS 

"  Yes,  the  birds  don't  know  everything  about  the 
seasons.  They're  just  as  apt  as  not  to  take  a  warm 
spell  for  summer.  Why,  it  ain't  Easter  yet." 

"  Well,  the  children  are  beginning  to  talk  about 
coloring  eggs." 

"  I'll  be  bound  they  are.  Mrs.  Powell,  I  speak  to 
cover  the  calico  eggs.  I've  got  some  pieces  my  cousin 
Polly  give  me  that  '11  make  the  nicest  pattern  for  eggs 
you  ever  saw." 

"  I  won't  interfere  with  you,"  Ann  assented.  "  But 
now  come  and  see  where  you  are  going  to  live." 

She  led  Rosy  through  the  cabin  and  out  of  the  back 
door,  where  Powell  had  knocked  together,  as  he  said, 
a  rude  lean-to  of  slabs  for  a  summer  kitchen,  and  open 
ing  out  of  this  at  one  side  a  small  room  where  a  cot-bed 
was  placed  under  the  window. 

"  Why,  it's  great,  Mrs.  Powell,"  the  girl  said,  taking 
note  of  a  washstand  and  looking-glass,  and  the  pegs  to 
hang  her  clothes  on.  "  I  just  wisht  Polly  bairns  could 
see  it.  She  hain't  got  anything  half  like  it  on  the 
canal-boat;  she  has  to  sleep  right  in  the  very  kitchen, 
almost  on  top  of  the  stove." 

Ann  looked  the  joyous  girl  over  with  a  new  sense 
of  her  young  beauty.  "  Well,  I'll  just  tell  you  what, 
Rosy;  I'll  never  let  you  sleep  here  in  the  world.  It 
isn't  the  place  for  you.  We'll  put  the  boys  in  here, 
and  you  can  have  the  loft." 

"  Oh,  Mrs.  Powell !"  the  girl  lamented.  "  What  did 
you  get  it  ready  for  me  for,  if  you  didn't  mean  to  let 
me  have  it?" 

Ann  faltered  as  to  what  she  should  say.  Then  she 
said :  "  You  don't  know  what  an  awful  pack  some 
of  them  are  around  here.  I  always  thought  of  you 
as  you  used  to  be.  But  you're  —  you're  grown  up, 
Rosy." 

62 


NEW    LEAF    MILLS 

"  Well,  just  as  you  say,  Mrs.  Powell,"  Eosy  com 
plied,  demurely. 

"  Rosy,"  Mrs.  Powell  said,  while  she  hesitated  still, 
"  have  you  seen  your  mother  lately  ?" 

"  Not  since  the  place  before  last.  But  I  knowed 
she  was  on  the  track  of  me,  and  that's  why  I  was  so 
glad  to  get  here.  Why,  I  just  broke  down  and  cried 
when  your  sister-in-law  ast  if  I  would  like  to  live  with 
you.  It  was  at  market,  and  I  couldn't  hardly  wait  till 
I  could  get  home  and  tell  Mrs.  Linsey  I  was  goin'  to 
leave.  She  knows  about  mother,  and  she  was  real  nice 
when  she  understood." 

"  I  hope  Polly  is  keeping  straight." 

"  Oh  yes.  It  ain't  very  nice  being  on  the  boat  with 
the  men,  do  you  think ;  but  the  captain  he  looks  after 
her." 

"  Rosy,  it  seems  dreadful  for  me  to  ask  you  to  warn 
her  against  your  mother." 

"  Oh,  that's  all  right,  Mrs.  Powell.  Polly  'd  never 
tell  her  where  I  am." 

"  I  didn't  mean  that  exactly." 

"  Yes,  I  understand,  Mrs.  Powell.  But  Polly  knows 
how  to  take  care  of  herself  a  good  sight  better 'n  I  do." 

Ann  drew  a  long  breath.  "  Well,  now,  we  must  see 
about  dinner." 

She  could  not  refuse  the  great  relief  that  came  into 
her  heart;  the  clouds  that  had  filled  her  home-bound 
heaven  broke  and  drifted  off  to  the  far  horizon  of  the 
outer  world,  and  with  the  girl,  who  eagerly  took  up 
the  household  work,  she  could  not  refuse  some  share  in 
Powell's  enjoyment  of  a  thing  that  happened  a  few  days 
later,  though  it  was  a  thing  that  had  struck  terror  to 
her  heart  while  it  was  happening. 

Owen  had  gone  to  one  of  the  outlying  farms  to  make 

favor  for  some  turnips,  and  she  was  standing  at  the 

63 


NEW    LEAF    MILLS 

cabin  door  waiting  to  see  him  come  out  of  the  woods  on 
the  rise  of  the  eastward  hill,  when  the  team  emerged 
at  a  speed  which  she  had  never  known  in  either  the 
horse  or  driver  before.  They  came  flying  over  the 
intervening  distances,  and  as  they  seemed  to  flash  by 
her  she  was  aware  of  Powell  rocking  helpless  on  the 
seat  and  the  reins,  which  had  escaped  his  hands,  drag 
ging  on  the  road  under  the  horse's  feet.  The  horse 
whirled  round  the  corner  of  the  cabin  dooryard  into 
the  open  space  before  the  grist-mill,  and  there,  as  in 
a  mystical  vision,  she  was  aware  of  Overdale  at  the 
head  of  the  horse,  as  if  he  had  leaped  from  his  place 
at  the  door  of  the  second  story,  while  Powell  appeared 
softly  to  bound  from  the  wagon  and  light  on  his  feet. 
The  rest  of  the  event  was  solely  of  Powell's  experience, 
for  as  soon  as  Ann  saw  him  safe  on  the  ground  she 
ran  into  the  cabin  and  sank  down  sick. 

When  he  came  to  reassure  her,  he  was  laughing,  and 
he  justified  his  amusement  as  the  effect  of  Overdale's 
characteristic  behavior.  "  When  he  decided  that  I 
wasn't  killed,  or  even  seriously  scared,  he  said,  f  Now, 
dern  you,  we're  even,'  and  he  gave  me  the  reins  and 
turned  his  back  on  me  and  went  into  the  mill." 

Powell  laughed  again,  shaking  his  shoulders  and 
nodding  his  head  up  and  down  as  his  fashion  was,  but 
Ann  would  not  join  him  at  once.  "  What  did  he  mean 
by  that  ?"  she  asked,  conditionally. 

"  Why,  you  know,"  Powell  explained,  struggling 
with  his  delight,  "  you  know  he  had  never  felt  just 
right  about  my  pulling  his  boy  out  of  the  water.  I 
could  see  that  it  was  worrying  him  all  along.  He  felt 
that  he  ought  to  say  something  civil  about  it,  but  he 
didn't  know  how,  and  he  didn't  want  to,  besides.  It 
would  have  been  like  giving  up  his  grudge  against  us. 
Well,  as  luck  would  have  it,  he  thought  he  had  saved 

64 


NEW    LEAF    MILLS 

my  neck,  and  so  we  were  quits.  It's  deliciously  like 
the  fellow." 

Powell  laughed  again,  but  his  wife  frowned  before 
she  smiled. 

"  Why  do  you  say  he  thought  he  saved  you  ?  He 
did  save  you." 

"  Oh,  there  wasn't  the  least  danger !  I  was  intend 
ing  to  roll  out  at  the  first  soft  spot  I  came  to." 

"  You  were  a  long  time  coming  to  it,  Owen." 

"  Yes ;  I  hadn't  made  up  my  mind  about  the  softness 
even  at  the  last." 

He  laughed  now  at  his  own  humorous  notion  of  him 
self;  he  found  that  as  characteristic  as  the  miller's 
behavior;  Ann  made  a  despairing  click  of  her  tongue 
in  her  perplexity  with  the  man  who  through  their  whole 
married  life  had  puzzled  her  by  the  provisional  levity 
tempering  his  final  seriousness.  At  the  moment,  now, 
he  turned  serious,  as  much  interested  in  another  phi 
losophy  of  the  case  which  suggested  itself  as  he  had 
been  in  its  grotesque  phase. 

"  I  shouldn't  be  at  all  surprised  if  it  worked  out 
favorably,  on  the  whole.  Whether  there  was  any  real 
danger  or  not,  Overdale  believes  he's  done  me  a  good 
turn,  and  he's  relieved  of  the  gratitude  toward  me 
which  has  been  embittering  him.  At  the  same  time 
he  has  involved  himself  in  the  obligation  which  binds 
us  in  kindness  toward  those  we  have  benefited.  If 
he's  saved  my  neck,  as  you  think,  he  can't  help  feeling 
friendlier  toward  me  from  that  fact  alone." 

"  Well,"  Ann  said,  "  let  us  hope-  so.  You'll  want 
your  dinner  now.  But  let  me  brush  you.  You're  all 
dust." 

"  And  I  think  I  had  better  wash  up  a  little,"  Powell 
said,  going  before  her  into  the  kitchen,  where  she  fol 
lowed  him,  plying  the  whisk-broom  on  his  shoulders. 


XI 


AT  their  next  meeting  Overdale  did  not  pass  Powell 
in  surly  avoidance  so  promptly  as  lie  usually  did.  He 
looked  at  him  with  a  sort  of  novel  interest,  as  if  he 
might  have  seen  something  in  him  which  had  not  caught 
his  eye  before.  He  said  nothing,  and  Powell  thought 
it  best  not  to  renew  the  offer  of  his  gratitude  for  the 
miller's  timely  aid;  that  was  what  he  now  called  it  to 
himself.  But  he  halted  the  man,  who,  after  the  first 
hesitation,  would  have  slouched  by  him  with  the  peck 
measure  of  corn  under  his  arm  on  the  way  to  feed  his 
pigs.  "  Mr.  Overdale,"  he  said,  "  I  suppose  you  know 
we  are  going  to  put  in  the  paper  machinery  as  soon  as 
we  can  make  the  necessary  changes.  No,  wait  a  mo 
ment,"  he  hurried  on  at  sight  of  the  frown  darkening 
the  miller's  white  face.  "  I  want  to  say  now  what  I 
have  wanted  to  say  from  the  outset,  that  in  any  change 
we  make  we  hope  to  keep  you  here  with  us.  I'm  not 
sure  that  we  can't  keep  something  of  the  flouring  ap 
paratus,"  the  notion  flashed  into  Owen's  hopeful  mind, 
"  but,  whether  we  can  or  not,  we  want  you  to  stay  on, 
somehow.  This  is  my  brother's  wish  as  well — as  well 
as  my — " 

"  You  tell  your  brother,"  the  miller  blazed  out,  "  to 
go  to  hell." 

"  Oh,  come,  come,"  Powell  reasoned.  "  Let  us  con 
sider  this  matter  in  its  true  light.  I've  wanted  to  have 
an  opportunity  to  talk  it  over  with  you  ever  since  I 

came  here,  for  I  know — " 

66 


STEW    LEAF    MILLS 

"  For  half  a  cent,"  the  miller  blazed  out  again,  "  I'd 
knock  your  head  off."  But  in  spite  of  his  furious  words 
his  tone  was  helplessly  provisional. 

"  After  just  saving  my  neck  ?  You  ought  to  ask 
more,"  Powell  said ;  and  he  smiled  so  kindly  that  Over- 
dale,  who  glowered  still,  might  well  have  been  moved 
by  the  joke.  But  he  shifted  the  peck  measure  to  his 
left  side  and  pressed  close,  pushing  his  floury  visage 
almost  against  Powell's  face  and  lifting  his  fist.  The 
man  who  had  never  been  in  any  danger  that  he  knew 
of  did  not  believe  that  the  miller  was  going  to  strike 
him.  "  I  think,"  he  argued,  placidly,  "  that  we  can 
come  to  an  understanding  that  will  be  of  mutual  ad 
vantage  if  we  once  reach  it.  I  am  not  aware  of  ever 
harboring  ill  feeling  toward  you,  and  if  I  had  I  couldn't 
do  so  now.  But  apparently  there  is  something  on  your 
mind  against  my  brothers  and  me — me  more  especially, 
as  I'm  their  representative  here.  Should  you  mind 
frankly  saying  what  it  is  ?" 

"You  keep  away  from  me!"  Over  dale  shouted. 
"  I'll  kill  you  some  day." 

"  I  don't  believe  you  will.  Perhaps  you  really 
meant  to  kill  me  the  first  night  I  was  here,  but  you 
didn't ;  and  after  what  happened  yesterday  I  feel  pretty 
safe  with  you;  in  fact,  you've  just  thrown  away  a 
chance  that  would  have  relieved  you  of  responsibility. 
When  it  came  to  the  point,  you  wouldn't  even  let  the 
pony  kill  me." 

"  Do  you  suppose — curse  you! — I  done  it  for  you?" 

"  "No,  you  did  it  for  your  little  boy ;  I  understood 
that  perfectly,  and  I  accepted  it  on  those  terms.  But 
what  I  am  trying  to  get  at  is  the  thing  you  have  on 
your  mind  against  us.  If  we  could  sit  down  some 
where — "  Powell  looked  about  him  for  the  log  or 

fence-rail  which  commonly  offered  itself  for  the  con- 

167 


NEW    LEAF    MILLS 

venience  of  talk  at  New  Leaf  Mills,  but  he  found  none 
near,  and  he  was  afraid  Overdale  would  escape  him  if 
they  moved  from  the  spot  where  they  were. 

"  I  don't  want  to  set  down  nowheres,"  the  miller 
said,  but  he  did  not  go.  It  was  as  if  the  gentle  phi 
losopher  held  him  by  a  mesmeric  spell. 

"  Oh,  well,  we  can  as  easily  talk  standing,"  Powell 
lightly  put  the  point  aside.  "  I'm  not  aware  of  having 
offered  you  any  personal  offense.  Have  I?" 

"  Who  said  you  had  ?" 

"  Well,  I'm  glad  you  don't  think  I  have.  Then  the 
question  is  whether  we've  done  you  some  sort  of  injury 
by  buying  the  mills  ?" 

"  No,  you  hain't,  unless  the  Larrabees  told  you  I 
wanted  'em." 

"  They  never  did." 

"  If  I  had  'em  by  the  scruff  of  the  neck  and  could 
crack  their  heads  together — 

"  Mind,  I  don't  say  that  we  shouldn't  have  bought 
them  in  any  case." 

"  Then,  what  the  hell— 

"  But  we  never  meant  to  put  you  out  of  your  place 
here.  We  have  intended  nothing  but  good  by  this  whole 
neighborhood,  and  from  the  fact  that  we  have  gladly 
kept  you  on  here — 

Overdale  snorted  disdainfully.  "  You  knowed  dern 
well  you  couldn't  'a'  got  along  without  me." 

"  Yes,  we  knew  that.  But  now  you  see  that  when 
we  could  get  on  without  you  we  still  wish  you  to  stay. 
We  wish  you  to  be  one  of  us,  to  be  in  charge  of  the 
paper-mill,  if  possible,  as  you  have  been  in  charge  of 
the  grist-mill.  Now,  what  is  on  your  mind  ?" 

The  shame  for  his  secret  could  not  show  its  red 
through  the  flour  of  the  miller's  face;  but  he  dropped 

his  eyes,  turning  his  head  first  this  way  and  then  that. 

68 


NEW    LEAF    MILLS 

Whatever  longing  was  in  his  heart  to  free  itself,  he 
quelled  it. 

"  Mrs.  Overdale,"  Powell  continued,  "  asked  my  wife 
the  other  day  what  I  had  against  you.  If  I  can  con 
vince  you  that  I  have  only  the  kindest  feeling  toward 
you-" 

Overdale  gave  a  formless  bark.  He  showed  his  under 
teeth  as  a  dog  does;  he  squared  his  shoulders  and 
pushed  against  Powell.  "  You  git  out  o'  my  road." 

Powell  stood  aside.  "  Well,  some  other  time  when 
you're  more  in  the  mood  for  it.  I  won't  press  the 
matter  now." 

He  praised  himself  for  his  forbearance  when  he  re 
ported  the  incident  to  his  wife,  who  could  only  give  a 
gasp  of  relief  at  the  conclusion. 

"  I  watched  you  talking  with  him,"  Ann  said.  She 
was  seldom  of  a  satiric  mood  with  the  man  whose  phil 
osophic  mind  held  her  respect  even  when  it  passed 
her  patience,  but  now  she  added,  "  Did  he  seem  to  like 
you  better  because  he  had  saved  your  life  ?" 

"  Oh,  he  didn't  save  my  life."  Powell  was  constant 
in  his  insistence  on  the  point.  "  But  apparently  he 
doesn't  like  me  any  better  for  his  having  stopped  the 
pony.  At  one  moment  I  certainly  thought  he  was  going 
to  strike  me." 

"  I  thought  so  too,"  Ann  said.  "  My  heart  was  in 
my  mouth." 

"  There  wasn't  the  least  danger,  however,  as  it  turned 
out."  Then  Powell  began  to  laugh  in  the  way  that  tried 
her  so. 

"  What  is  it  now  ?"  she  required  of  him. 

"  Oh,  I  was  thinking  of  the  effect  in  myself  of  bear 
ing  with  his  violence.  Whatever  his  feeling  toward 
me  was,  I  was  aware  of  liking  him  better  because  I  was 
still  wishing  to  do  him  good  in  spite  of  himself.  If 

69 


NEW    LEAF    MILLS 

he  had  really  knocked  me  over  "•  —Powell  pursued  his 
notion  to  its  climax  with  joy  in  its  absurdity — "  I  sup 
pose  I  should  have  become  his  friend  for  life.  There 
was  no  danger  of  his  striking  me,"  he  assured  Ann 
again,  "  but  now  I  shall  have  to  fall  back  upon  general 
principles.  I  shall  have  to  love  Overdale  along  with 
the  rest  of  our  neighbors;  and  certainly  a  more  de 
testable  crew  never  appealed  to  a  man's  best  feelings. 
I  shall  be  glad  when  we  get  the  paper  machinery  in 
and  begin  actively  doing  them  good.  If  we  don't  do  it 
soon,  I  shall  feel  like  packing  up  and  leaving  them  to 
their  evils." 

"  That  is  the  way  I  have  felt  all  along,  Owen,"  Ann 
said,  grimly.  "  But  we  can't  think  of  that  now.  If 
Felix  is  coming  here  to  live  we  must  surely  stay,  no 
matter  what  happens.  We  must  hurry  everything  for 
ward  and  have  the  new  house  ready  for  him  before 
the  summer  begins.  Oh,  when  I  think  how  the  thing 
has  lagged  along,  it  seems  as  if  I  must  put  it  up  with 
my  own  hands !" 

"  Well,  I  think  the  neighbors  will  help  with  the 
frame  when  they  see  you  lifting  those  heavy  sills,  and 
Rosy  and  the  children  tugging  the  studs  and  scantling 
to  you."  He  mocked  her,  but  he  ended,  as  always,  with 
the  earnest  cheer,  which  she  ended  by  accepting  with 
the  trust  which  his  hopefulness  compelled.  "  Now 
that  you've  got  Rosy  you  won't  even  have  to  call  on 
the  neighbors'  wives  to  cook  the  dinner  for  the  raising." 


70 


XII 


THE  Powells  had  forecast  the  raising  in  every  detail 
months  before  the  day  came,  and  after  the  masons  had 
put  in  the  foundation  their  fancy  was  busy  completing 
the  structure.  It  was  the  custom  for  the  builders  of 
a  new  house  to  ask  the  whole  neighborhood  to  the  rais 
ing.  The  invitation  went  out  by  word,  direct  or  in 
direct,  as  convenience  served.  Those  who  were  spoken 
to  carried  the  message  to  those  unspoken,  and  in  re 
sponse  the  farmers  came  to  put  the  skeleton  of  the 
house  together  and  leave  it  for  the  carpenters  to  line 
with  sheathing  and  clothe  on  with  clapboards  and 
shingles ;  and  the  farmers'  wives  came  to  help  cook 
the  feast  which  rewarded  the  labors  of  the  day.  Ann 
proudly  felt  herself  equal  to  deal  single-handed  with 
the  quality  of  the  feast,  but  the  quantity,  she  knew 
from  the  beginning,  was  beyond  her,  and  there  she  was 
aware  she  must  not  fail,  under  pain  of  an  indefinite 
increase  of  the  unpopularity  which  she  knew  that  she 
shared  with  Powell.  With  Rosy's  help  no  one  could 
cook  a  better  meal,  but  three  times  their  joint  efficiency 
would  not  suffice  for  the  meal  which  must  be  cooked. 
She  must  rely  upon  the  favor  of  her  neighbors,  but  she 
could  ask  it  by  implication  only  in  asking  them  to  the 
raising. 

She  and  her  husband  agreed  about  this  necessity, 
as  they  agreed  about  the  necessity  of  asking  the  men. 

They  got  on  confidently  enough  in  the  details  till  they 

71 


NEW    LEAF    MILLS 

came  to  a  point  where  Powell  sometimes  seemed  to 
waver  and  Ann  always  stood  firm.  The  point  was 
whether  they  should  provide  the  whiskey,  which  was  the 
free  drink  at  raisings,  or  should  offer  unstinted  coffee 
of  a  compensating  strength,  and  of  a  brew  which  Ann 
was  willing  publicly  to  stake  her  housewifely  reputa 
tion  on. 

"  You  know,  Ann,  I  have  never  been  a  teetotaler," 
he  teased. 

"  When  have  you  ever  drunk  anything  ?" 

"  That  is  true ;  but  I  mean  a  teetotaler  on  prin 
ciple." 

"  Well,  you  have  never  been  an  Abolitionist,  but  you 
have  always  been  opposed  to  the  extension  of  slavery, 
haven't  you?" 

"  Yes,  but  I  don't  see—" 

"  Yes,  Owen,  you  know  yon  do.  You  want  to  restrict 
drunkenness,  and  though  you  may  not  be  a  teetotaler, 
you  can't  do  that  unless  you  stop  the  drinking." 

Powell  enjoyed  her  logic,  but  he  could  not  forbear 
making  her  observe  a  break  in  it.  "  I  am  in  favor  of 
confining  slavery  to  the  present  slave  States,  or  against 
carrying  it  into  Territories  now  free.  On  the  same 
principle  I  ought  to  let  the  old  topers  get  as  drunk  as 
they  like,  while  I  deny  whiskey  to  those  who  have 
never  been  drunk.  Suppose  we  let  it  be  known  that 
there  is  a  jug  for  those  who  have  the  habit  of  it,  and 
coffee  for  those  who  haven't." 

"  Now,  Owen !"  Ann  cried,  charmed  with  his  joking, 
but  vexed  with  him  for  it. 

"  Well,  let  us  compromise,  then ;  no  whiskey  for  any 
body;  hard  cider  for  everybody." 

"  Have  you  ever  been  in  favor  of  compromising  with 
slavery  ?  They  can  get  drunk  on  hard  cider  as  well,  as 
on  whiskev;  you  know  they  can." 

72 


NEW    LEAF    MILLS 

"  Well,  not  so  fighting  drunk.  Unless  we  let  some 
of  them  get  peaceable  drunk,  we  won't  have  a  friend  in 
the  neighborhood  when  the  day's  over." 

"  Nonsense !  Elder  Griswell  never  lets  them  have 
anything  but  molasses  water  in  the  harvest  field." 

"And  is  the  neighborhood  full  of  his  friends?" 
Powell  saw  that  he  had  carried  victory  beyond  its  limits. 
"  Oh,  well,"  he  gave  way,  "  have  your  old  coffee  then. 
But  I  shall  reserve  the  privilege  of  getting  drunk  in 
private  before  I  begin  the  day.  What  else  are  you  going 
to  have  for  the  feast  ?" 

"  Never  you  mind ;  I'll  see  to  that.  Just  keep  your 
jug  to  yourself;  that's  all  I  ask." 

"  I  may  offer  Overdale  a  swig  ?" 

"  Overdale  has  a  jug  of  his  own." 

"  I've  sometimes  suspected  as  much,"  Powell  said ; 
and  he  went  away  lifting  his  shoulders  and  shaking 
with  the  fun. 

He  came  back  to  say,  seriously :  "  I  think  we  had 
better  make  a  special  point  of  asking  Bladen.  He  is 
the  decentest  man  in  the  neighborhood,  and  his  coming 
would  give  the  occasion  dignity  in  the  eyes  of  the  world 
here  that  nothing  else  would." 

"  I  didn't  know  that  you  cared  for  the  world  any 
where,  Owen." 

"  No,  I  don't.  But  this  is  a  matter  in  which  we 
ought  to  put  our  best  foot  forward,  and  he  seems  our 
best  foot." 

"  Well,  make  your  special  point,  then." 

They  had  other  hopeful  talks  of  it  before  the  day 
of  the  raising,  and  their  children  shared  the  talks  with 
them.  Rosy  was  like  one  of  the  children ;  she  made 
no  claim,  as  the  others  did,  for  special  recognition  in 
the  arrangement  of  the  rooms,  but  she  freely  gave  her 

opinion.      She  was  for  conformity  to  the   house-kite 

73 


NEW    LEAF    MILLS 

house,  as  she  called  the  gambrel-roof  pattern  which  had 
been  the  shape  of  the  house  where  she  first  lived  out 
and  which  all  the  best  kites  were  modeled  upon.  While 
the  father  and  mother  sat  with  the  plan  of  the  house 
on  the  table  before  them  in  the  lamplight,  and  the 
children  hung  upon  the  backs  of  their  chairs  looking 
over  at  it,  Rosy  went  and  came  in  and  out  of  the  shed 
kitchen  humming  to  herself  as  she  carried  her  dishes 
to  the  cupboard  and  stopping  to  glance  down  at  the 
map.  She  interrupted  the  humming  when  she  spoke, 
and  began  humming  again  when  she  had  spoken.  She 
gave  the  effect  of  perfect  freedom  while  preserving  an 
attitude  of  non-intervention,  of  being  a  friend  of  the 
family,  but  not  a  member  of  it. 

Powell  noticed  how,  with  her  shortness  and  straight- 
ness,  she  had  yet  a  sort  of  stiff  grace  which  expressed 
an  inner  rhythm  and  timed  itself  to  the  staccato  tune 
she  was  humming.  One  night  as  he  was  winding  his 
watch  he  said  to  his  wife,  "  Rosy  seems  very  happy." 

"  Yes,"  Ann  consented,  "  she  seems  happy,"  and  she 
sighed. 

"  What  do  you  mean  by  that  ?" 

"  She  is  very  headstrong.  She's  not  a  little  girl 
any  more.  She  has  her  own  ideas;  it's  hard  to  move 
her ;  I  have  to  manage  very  carefully  with  her." 

"  About  her  work  ?" 

"  About  herself.  There  was  never  one  like  her  to 
work;  we  are  both  agreed  about  the  work;  she  knows 
my  way,  and  all  she  wants  is  to  do  it." 

"Well,  then?" 

"  She's  flattered." 

"  Well,  she  ought  to  be,  with  the  way  you  pet 
her." 

"  Owen,  have  you  seen  that  man  lately  to  talk  to  ? 

That  Captain  Bickler  ?" 

74 


NEW    LEAF    MILLS 

"  Why,  no.  "  Not  since  he  came  with  the  brooch  he 
thought  Rosy  had  lost  in  the  buggy." 

"  He  never  thought  she  lost  it  thera" 

"  Then  why—5 

"  That's  what  I  don't  like.  If  he  wanted  to  see  the 
child,  why  didn't  he  come  and  ask  without  making  up 
that  excuse  and  bringing  her  a  present  ?" 

"  Well,  I  suppose  he's  shamefaced  if  he  fancies  her. 
Do  you  think  he  does?"  There  was  no  reason  in 
Powell's  scheme  of  life  why  Captain  Bickler  should 
not  fancy  a  girl  like  Rosy  and  be  shamefaced  about 
it;  that  was  right  and  in  the  nature  of  things;  but 
now  with  his  wife's  vision  he  pierced  below  the  sur 
face. 

"  I've  got  the  brooch  now." 

"  But  you  told  me  she  gave  it  back  to  him." 

"  Yes,  I  know." 

"  Then  he's  been  seeing  her." 

"  Yes;  more  than  I  supposed.  He's  been  coming  by 
here  in  his  electioneering,  and  he's  talked  with  Rosy 
when  she  was  out  with  the  children  on  the  other  side 
of  the  hill.  He  stops  to  talk  with  her,  and  the  children 
get  tired  and  go  off  playing.  She  told  me  about  it, 
and  gave  me  the  brooch.  He  made  her  take  it  the  other 
evening  when  he  was  passing  by  and  we  were  out  with 
the  children  in  the  flatboat;  we  ought  to  have  taken 
Rosy.  I  had  to  speak  very  plainly  to  her,  and  I'll  give 
him  his  brooch  the  first  time  I  see  him." 

"  Oh,  well,  I  don't  know,"  Owen  demurred. 

"  Why  don't  you  know  ?  Haven't  you  always  mis 
trusted  him  ?" 

"  Yes,  but  I've  had  no  real  grounds." 

"  Has  he  got  round  you  by  pretending  to  think  as 
you  do  about  the  State  platform?  I  heard  him  flat 
tering  you  up  that  day  while  his  eyes  followed  Rosy 
«  75 


NEW    LEAF    MILLS 

whenever  she  came  into  the  room.  And  his  pretending 
to  be  interested  in  the  Doctrines !" 

"  We  have  no  right  to  treat  him  as  if  he  were  guilty 
till  he  has  done  something  wrong." 

"  Well,  now  he  has  done  something  wrong.  He  has 
made  Rosy  take  that  brooch  in  spite  of  us,  Owen.  Any 
man  in  the  world  but  you  would  see  that  he  was  com 
ing  here  just  to  amuse  himself  with  Rosy,  and  to  get 
you  to  use  your  political  influence  to  send  delegates  to 
the  county  convention  that  will  vote  for  him." 

Now  Powell  thought  he  had  reason  to  laugh.  "  My 
influence  with  Bellam  ?" 

"Your  influence  with  all  the  decent  people  in  the 
neighborhood,  and  your  influence  with  everybody  ex 
cept  Overdale  and  his  crew,  as  soon  as  it's  certain  that 
the  paper  machinery  is  going  in.  But  I  don't  say  that 
he's  here  on  your  account;  it's  on  Rosy's.  He's  taken 
with  her." 

"  Why,  naturally  he  admires  her." 

"  Oh !"  Ann  broke  out  at  the  end  of  her  patience. 
"  Certainly  you  are  the  most  trying  man !" 

"  What  excuse  did  he  make  to  her  when  he  brought 
the  brooch  ?" 

"  He  didn't  make  any.  He  said  he  wanted  her  to 
have  it  whether  she  had  lost  it  or  not;  he  said  he 
couldn't  think  of  any  one  else  to  give  it  to." 

"Did  she  tell  you  that?" 

"  Yes.    And  of  course  it  flattered  her,  poor  child." 

"  Have  you  got  it  here  ?"  Ann  took  it  out  of  her 
pocket.  "  You  have  dealt  with  Rosy,"  Powell  said, 
reaching  his  hand  for  it.  "  I  will  deal  with  Captain 
Bickler." 

"  I  can't  trust  you.     I  will  do  it." 

"  That  wouldn't  be  dignified,  Ann." 

"  Will  you  be  plain  with  him  ?" 

76 


NEW    LEAF    MILLS 

'"'  I  will  use  fairly  clear  dictionary  English  with 
him/'  Powell  said,  beginning  to  joke  again,  now  that 
he  had  the  brooch  in  his  keeping.  He  looked  down  at 
it  in  his  palm  and  turned  it  over.  "  It  doesn't  seem 
to  be  a  great  many  carats  fine.  But  I  dare  say  Rosy 
isn't  a  judge  of  jewelry.  Or  Bickler  either,  for  that 
matter."  Powell  hated  the  duty  before  him,  but  it  was 
his  duty,  and  not  Ann's,  as  she  now  perceived  too. 


XIII 

POWELL  was  reluctant  to  think  evil  of  any  one,  and 
his  early  want  of  perspective  in  the  world  made  it 
hard  for  him  to  imagine  a  design  of  wrong  from  one 
social  level  to  another.  In  the  new  country  to  which 
his  family  had  first  come,  from  the  Old  World  in  his 
own  generation,  he  had  not  seen  much  of  those  differ 
ences  ;  his  father  had  left  the  Old  World  in  abhorrence 
of  the  conditions  which  perpetuated  social  inequality 
there,  and  Powell  had  been  taught  by  precept,  if  not 
practice,  that  such  conditions  were  wicked  and  inhu 
man.  His  reading  as  a  boy  had  been  largely  in  the 
English  poetry,  where  the  life  of  simple  villagers  and 
rustics  was  celebrated  as  the  ideal,  and  the  cruelty  of 
the  Great  was  ascribed  to  the  unjust  structure  of  so 
ciety.  After  his  reading  began  to  be  so  exclusively  in 
the  Doctrines,  the  questions  of  mundane  difference  sank 
more  and  more  out  of  sight;  they  would  settle  them 
selves  as  man's  conduct  grew  more  in  accord  with  the 
Interior  Sense  of  the  Word. 

Powell  left  his  wife  at  the  cabin  busy  witH  some 
work  which  she  undertook  after  calling :  "  Rosy !  Oh, 
Rosy!  I  wonder  where  that  girl  is!"  and  then  setting 
about  it  alone,  with  the  comforting  conclusion,  "  Off 
with  the  children  somewhere,  I  suppose."  She  was 
inclined  to  be  the  less  severe  with  Rosy  because  of  the 
severity  she  had  been  obliged  to  use  with  her  about  the 

brooch,  and  she  was  glad  to  find  her  a  child  still  with 

78 


NEW    LEAF    MILLS 

the  other  children;  she  did  not  want  her  to  feel  her 
self  grown  up. 

"  I  will  look  for  them  on  my  way  to  Bladen's," 
Powell  promised.  "  I  want  to  see  if  he  has  any  winter 
apples  left." 

"  I  wish  we  could  get  some  dried  peaches  to  make 
pies  for  the  raising,"  his  wife  said,  casually,  at  part 
ing;  the  raising  had  taken  the  first  place  among  her 
cares  already. 

He  walked  southward  by  the  road  that  curved  round 
the  hill  and  continued  on  to  Spring  Grove  after  it  left 
the  hill  behind.  But  it  was  at  the  bottom  of  the  hill 
that  by  a  sudden  turn  he  chanced  upon  Captain  Bickler 
sitting  his  horse  at  the  roadside  next  the  river  and  look 
ing  up  the  shore  over  a  growth  of  tall  pawpaw  bushes 
which  covered  it  there.  He  was  handsomely  dressed 
in  his  one  fine  broadcloth  suit,  and  he  had  an  effect 
of  military  gallantry,  with  his  slender,  graceful  figure 
showing  itself  above  his  horse's  neck  as  he  stood  up  in 
his  stirrups. 

"  Any  pheasants  over  there  ?"  Powell  called  to  him 
for  salutation. 

"How  do  you  do,  Mr.  Powell?"  the  young  man 
called  back,  as  he  dropped  into  his  saddle ;  and  he  rode 
forward  and  leaned  over  to  give  Powell  his  hand. 
"  Why,  no.  I  don't  know  what  it  was  exactly,"  he 
added.  "  I  was  just  going  up  to  your  place.  I  think 
Fve  got  some  news  that  will  please  you.  The  Capital 
City  Whig  says — I've  got  yesterday's  paper — that  there 
will  be  no  doubt  of  that  anti-fugitive  slave  law  plank 
going  into  the  platform  at  the  State  convention.  I've 
thought  so  all  along  myself.  I  want  you  to  remember 
that,  Mr.  Powell." 

Powell  smiled ;  he  saw  no  reason  why  he  should  not 
give  himself  that  pleasure  and  still  do  his  duty  in  be- 


NEW    LEAF    MILLS 

half  of  his  wife.  He  took  the  paper  from  Bidder,  who 
was  holding  his  thumb  at  a  certain  place  in  it,  and 
read  it  with  satisfaction  in  its  fact  and  in  his  own 
respite.  "  Yes,  the  Whig  has  always  been  on  the  right 
side.  I  didn't  know  you  had,"  he  said,  giving  the  paper 
back  with  a  sharper  glance  up  at  Bickler. 

"  Oh  yes,  I  have,"  the  young  man  answered.  "  It 
won't  do  to  go  too  fast  if  you  want  to  keep  your  in 
fluence  in  a  community  like  this.  It's  all  well  enough 
for  you,  Mr.  Powell ;  you've  got  a  different  sort  of  hold, 
but  I  have  to  feel  my  way.  That's  why  I  wouldn't  like 
to  say  just  where  I  stand  at  present  to  everybody;  but 
you'll  find  me  in  the  right  place  when  the  time 
comes.  All  well  at  home?  It  does  me  good  every 
time  I  see  Mrs.  Powell.  She's  about  the  nicest  lady 
I  know." 

"  Thank  you,  we  are  all  very  well,"  Powell  answered, 
provisionally. 

Bickler  continued,  with  increasing  smoothness: 
"  That's  a  great  book  you  lent  m-e.  I  want  to  keep 
it  a  while  longer  and  go  through  it  carefully.  It's 
a  wonder  how  he  maps  the  other  world  out.  Makes 
this  world  seem  all  at  sixes  and  sevens." 

Bickler  laughed  ingratiatingly;  and  Powell  asked, 
"  Do  you  mean  that  he  makes  too  much  of  a  map  of 
the  other  world  ?  That  has  been  objected  by  some." 

"  I  don't  know  if  I  should  say  that,  exactly,"  Bickler 
answered.  "  But  that  idea  of  the  spiritual  world  being 
all  in  the  shape  of  a  Grand  Man,  with  the  different 
spirits  in  the  different  parts  according  to  their  being 
good  or  bad — well,  some  might  say  that  was  funny." 

"  I  see  nothing  funny  in  it,"  Powell  began,  resent 
fully  ;  and  Bickler  made  haste  to  save  himself. 

"  Oh,  I  don't  mean  funny  in  the  ridiculous  sense.  I 
mean  strange  and — and  new;  that's  all." 

80 


NEW    LEAF    MILLS 

"  I  think  I  can  make  it  appear  to  you  in  its  true 
light,"  Powell  said,  putting  his  hand  on  the  neck  of 
Bickler's  horse  and  caressing  it  with  a  mounting  kind 
ness  for  Bickler  himself.  "  We  are  so  used  to  thinking 
of  Heaven  as  in  the  sky  over  our  heads  and  Hell  as  a 
pit  under  our  feet  that  it  is  hard  for  us  to  conceive  of 
them  otherwise;  but  a  very  little  reflection  will  con 
vince  you  that  the  topography — if  I  may  so  express  it — 
of  the  spiritual  world  is  much  more  reasonably  repre 
sented  by  our  human  figure,  which  was  made  in  the 
likeness  of  the  Divine." 

From  time  to  time  the  young  man  said,  "  Yes,  yes," 
and,  "  To  be  sure,"  and,  "  I  reckon  you're  right."  The 
horse  stamped  in  the  soft  road,  and  sent  gentle  shivers 
over  its  silken  surface,  and  tossed  its  fine  head  up  and 
down,  jingling  its  bit. 

Powell  at  last  took  his  hand  away,  saying,  "You 
cannot  go  amiss  if  you  look  at  it  in  the  light  of  the 
Science  of  Correspondences." 

Bickler  assented  with  a  sigh :  "  I'll  keep  that  in 
mind.  It's  a  mighty  new  idea.  But  now  about  the 
two  delegates  from  this  township  to  the  county  con 
vention.  Can  I  count  on  your  support  if  I  arrange  to 
have  you  sent  as  one  of  them  ?" 

"  Yes,  certainly,"  Powell  assented,  with  the  cordiality 
due  a  man  who  had  shown  such  an  intelligent  interest 
in  the  matters  he  had  laid  before  Bickler.  "  But  I 
ought  to  say  that  I  don't  think  there  is  the  least  prob 
ability  of  my  being  sent.  It  may  be  different  after  we 
get  the  paper  machinery  in  and  the  neighbors  see  that 
we  mean  to  be  as  good  as  our  word,  but  at  present  I 
realize  that  I  am  anything  but  popular  in  the  neighbor 
hood." 

Bickler  laughed  the  notion  away.  "  Why,  Mr. 
Powell,  there's  never  been  a  man  here  more  respected. 

81 


NEW    LEAF    MILLS 

You'll  see,  when  the  people  turn  out  to  your  raising. 
When  is  the  raising  to  be  ?" 

"  Just  as  soon  as  we  can  bring  matters  to  a  head 
with  the  carpenters,  and  my  brother  Felix  can  arrange 
to  be  with  us.  He's  winding  up  his  business  as  fast 
as  he  can,  and  I  am  in  hopes  that  my  other  brothers 
can  join  us  soon.  By  the  way,  there's  a  point  on  which 
I  should  like  to  consult  you;  my  wife  and  I  have  dif 
fered  about  it  somewhat.  But  I  have  detained  you  long 
enough  already." 

"  Well,  I  am  in  something  of  a  hurry,  that's  a  fact," 
the  young  man  said.  "  But  any  time  I  can  be  of  service 
to  you — " 

He  indicated  with  a  large  flourish  that  he  was  at 
Powell's  disposition.  "  For  the  time  being,  as  between 
Mrs.  Powell  and  you,  we'll  leave  it  that  I'm  on  Mrs. 
Powell's  side."  He  laughed  at  his  joke,  and  it  was 
something  that  Powell  could  not  refuse  to  enjoy. 

"  Oh,  I  believe  I'm  on  her  side  too,"  he  said ;  and 
now  the  young  man  laughed  again,  and  shook  his  rein, 
and  his  horse  ambled  away. 

At  Mrs.  Powell's  coming  into  the  talk,  something 
came  into  her  husband's  mind,  but  too  warily  for  him 
to  seize  it.  When  Bickler  was  almost  out  of  sight,  and 
quite  beyond  earshot,  he  realized  that  he  had  not  given 
him  back  the  brooch. 

He  followed  vaguely  homeward  in  the  same  direction, 
wondering  what  he  should  say  to  his  wife.  When  he 
came  in  sight  of  her  standing  at  the  cabin  door,  she 
called  to  him,  "  Did  you  ask  the  Bladens  about  the 
dried  peaches  ?" 

"  I  declare,"  he  said,  stopping  short  with  the  relief 
a  man  finds  in  balancing  one  trouble  against  another, 
"  I  forgot  all  about  the  Bladens.  I'll  go  right  back— 

"  !No,  no,"  she  said,  coming  out  to  him.     "  I've  en- 

82 


NEW    LEAF    MILLS 

gaged  some  from  Hurvey ;  he  just  went  by.  But  where 
in  the  world  have  you  been  all  this  time  ?" 

Then  Powell  had  to  confess  what  he  felt  to  be  the 
greater  guilt  of  his  other  forgetfulness.  When  they 
had  talked  it  over,  Ann  said,  disappointedly,  "  Oh, 
well,  you  can  do  it  the  next  time  you  meet  him.  I  do 
hope  that  no  harm  will  come  from  the  delay." 

"  Oh,  there  isn't  the  least  danger,"  Owen  answered, 
light-hearted  at  escaping  so  easily. 

"  Better  let  me  have  the  brooch.  Til  remember  to 
give  it  to  Captain  Bickler,"  his  wife  suggested. 

"  No,  Ann.  It's  for  me  to  do  it.  And  I  shall  cer 
tainly  not  forget  another  time." 


XIV 

THE  children  came  home  together,  and  directly  after 
ward  Rosy  appeared  alone. 

"  Why,  Rosy,"  Mrs.  Powell  called  out  to  her,  "  I 
thought  you  and  the  children  went  off  together." 

The  eldest  of  the  little  girls  answered  for  her.  "  So 
we  did,  mother,  but  Rosy  wanted  to  go  and  see  what 
was  in  the  pawpaws  by  the  river-bank,  and  we  were 
afraid.  We  thought  Rosy  had  got  lost." 

Rosy  laughed.  "  I  came  up  over  the  hill.  I'll  get 
you  the  water." 

She  went  toward  Mrs.  Powell,  who  still  had  the  tea 
kettle  in  her  hand  on  the  way  to  the  well.  There  was 
something  evasive  in  her  looks,  which  arrested  Ann  in 
a  sort  of  distraction.  "  Well,  you  may,  Rosy.  I'm 
about  beat  out  with  this  hot  weather.  I  don't  feel  as 
if  I  could  go  near  that  stove.  "Now  you  set  the  table, 
children,"  she  commanded  her  little  ones. 

"  Oh,  mother,  we  hate  to  go  in  yet,"  they  pleaded, 
through  the  eldest  girl.  "  Can't  we  have  supper  over 
by  the  new  house?"  The  other  children  stood  with 
their  hands  ready  to  clap  and  their  feet  to  jump  into 
the  air  at  her  consent. 

The  younger  boys  counted  with  the  little  girls  in  the 
family.  Richard  almost  counted  with  his  father  and 
mother ;  he  shared  his  mother's  cares ;  his  next  brother, 
who  somewhat  darkled  after  him,  had  an  ideal  of  devo 
tion  to  her  which  he  realized  in  many  reveries.  The 

84 


NEW    LEAF    MILLS 

eldest  of  the  girls  was  like  Richard;  she  had  been  a 
third  hand  for  her  mother  about  the  house,  but  now 
that  Rosy  had  come  she  became  one  of  the  little  girls 
again.  She  played  with  them  in  the  tall  rows  of  rust 
ling  corn  stretching  far  away  in  the  eighty-acre  field 
behind  the  cabin;  she  helped  them  build  little  cabins 
of  twigs  over  the  wild  flowers;  they  all  painted  gloves 
on  their  hands  with  mulberry  juice.  Richard  loved 
adventure ;  he  wished  to  go  to  California  and  dig  gold ; 
his  brother  liked  dreaming  of  himself  in  stately  and 
splendid  characters  and  situations,  but  he  hated  the 
trouble  of  any  active  undertaking;  once  when  he  went 
to  visit  his  uncle  in  Tuskingum  and  see  the  boys  he 
used  to  know  he  was  deathly  homesick.  But  the 
brothers  were  as  good  friends  as  elder  and  younger 
brothers  usually  are. 

The  island  was  the  mystery  and  the  desire  of  all  the 
children;  the  boys  had  their  Indian  fights  there,  and 
they  could  go  for  a  drink  of  well-water,  when  they 
were  heated  in  battle,  to  Bellam's  cabin;  Mrs.  Bellam 
drew  the  water  with  a  bucket  at  the  end  of  a  long  pole, 
and  gave  it  to  them  in  a  gourd  dipper.  Richard  was 
the  friend  and  companion  of  Bellam  in  the  sawmill ;  he 
helped  him  there;  and  Bellam  helped  the  boys  build 
the  tent-shaped  hut  of  boards  their  father  planned  for 
kiln-drying  the  flooring  for  the  new  house;  sometimes 
he  sat  up  with  Richard  at  night,  and  when  the  boy  fell 
asleep  Bellami  shifted  the  boards  and  kept  the  fire 
going  good  and  hot  in  the  big  oblong  stove  which  they 
used  for  seasoning  the  lumber. 

He  liked  to  talk  about  the  raising,  and  was  as  eager 
for  it  as  the  Powells  themselves.  He  told  just  what 
he  should  do,  and  bespoke  certain  duties  and  privi 
leges.  Among  the  men  in  the  neighborhood  he  most 

truly  valued  Powell  and  honored  him;  he  said,  when- 

85 


NEW    LEAF    MILLS 

ever  he  could  get  any  one  to  look  at  his  thumb,  that  he 
reckoned  if  it  had  not  been  for  Mr.  Powell  he  would 
not  have  had  any  thumb  by  that  time.  He  was  welcome 
to  Mrs.  Powell  in  the  cabin ;  when  it  came  once  to  her 
offering  him  her  cane-seat  rocking-chair  he  said,  "  If 
I  had  a  cheer  like  this,  Fd  stay  at  home  all  Sunday 
and  rock." 

A  few  weeks  before  the  time  fixed  for  the  raising  in 
August,  what  people  called  the  flux  broke  out,  and 
many  were  sick.  One  of  the  Bellam  children  was  taken, 
and  then  another,  till  all  were  taken.  Lizzie  Bladen 
and  Richard  helped  their  father  and  mother  nurse  them, 
sitting  up  through  the  night  in  the  hot  little  single 
room  of  the  cabin,  and  all  but  one  of  the  children  died 
in  turn.  Richard  watched  with  the  dead,  a  thing  his 
brother  could  not  have  done  to  save  himself  alive; 
and  Lizzie  Bladen  shared  his  watch,  and  walked  home 
with  him  in  the  dim  dawns  across  the  island  and 
through  the  sawmill. 

It  came  Bellam's  own  turn,  and  he  was  very  sick  for 
a  week ;  then  he  seemed  to  be  getting  well ;  but  in  the 
early  morning  when  his  wife  and  Richard  were  lift 
ing  him  to  make  him  more  comfortable  on  his  pillow 
he  fell  back  and  died.  Mrs.  Bellam  said :  "  Now  he'll 
be  so  disappointed  about  the  raisin'.  He  'lowed  all 
along  to  do  the  most  of  it  hisself,  by  his  tell."  That 
night  Richard  could  not  keep  himself  from  telling  his 
brother  about  it,  and  how  solemn  it  seemed  coming  home 
with  Lizzie  Bladen.  If  it  had  not  been  for  her  not  being 
afraid  he  said  he  could  not  have  stood  it.  His  brother 
listened  with  his  tongue  cleaving  to  the  roof  of  his 
mouth,  and  silent  in  the  horror  of  an  experience  which 
his  fancy  made  tenfold  his  own.  He  knew  that  twenty 
Lizzie  Bladens  with  twenty  times  her  courage  would 

not  have  helped  him  stand  such  a  thing  as  seeing  a  man 

86 


NEW    LEAF    MILLS 

die.  His  brother  slept,  but  the  vision  of  what  his 
brother  had  seen  filled  the  dark  of  the  cabin  loft  for 
the  boy. 

Bellam  was  buried  beside  the  new  graves  of  his 
children  in  the  neglected  place  on  the  hill  which  Powell 
had  not  yet  got  the  stuff  out  for  fencing,  in  his  pre 
occupation  with  the  material  for  the  new  house.  The 
minister  at  Spring  Grove  was  sick,  and  could  not  come ; 
Powell  felt  it  would  be  a  sacrilege  to  let  Elder  Griswell 
perform  the  service  at  the  grave ;  he  took  the  duty  upon 
himself,  and  he  had  a  peculiar  joy  in  using  the  New 
Church  Book  of  Worship.  He  always  said  that  one 
ought  not  to  proselyte,  but  in  the  remarks  he  made  he 
contrived  to  bring  in  a  good  deal  of  the  Doctrines,  and 
apparently  no  one  felt  the  worse  for  them,  if  they  were 
none  the  wiser.  The  chance  use  of  a  passage  from 
Eevelation  suggested  the  peculiar  applicability  of  the 
Science  of  Correspondences  to  the  mysteries  of  that 
book,  and  Powell  branched  off  at  some  length  on  the  in 
terpretation  of  the  words  he  had  quoted.  He  recognized 
with  humorous  consciousness  that  his  excursion  had  the 
more  interest  with  his  hearers  because  it  involved  an 
exposition  of  the  spiritual  sense  of  the  word  horse ;  but 
afterward  he  blamed  himself  for  yielding  to  his  op 
portunity,  and  he  could  not  make  Ann  say  she  had 
liked  it.  At  the  close  he  announced  that  out  of  respect 
for  the  dead  the  raising,  which  would  be  a  kind  of 
frolic,  was  postponed  for  the  present.  He  spoke  of 
the  great  interest  which  Bellam  had  taken  in  the  build 
ing  of  the  new  house,  and  how  touching  it  had  been 
for  him  to  know  this.  Mrs.  Bellam  shed  tears,  and 
whispered  to  the  neighbor  at  her  elbow :  "  Just  what 
I  tole  Richard.  He'll  be  so  disapp'inted,  s'd  I." 

The  whole  countryside  came  to  Bellam's  funeral, 

which  was  the  climax  of  the  general  affliction;  with 

87 


NEW    LEAF    MILLS 


his  drat-h  llie  epidemic  began  lo  abftte,  :ind  will) 
cool  days  toward  the  end  of  August  it  disappeared. 
Overdale  did  not  come  to  the  funeral,  luil  lie  showed  his 
white  mask  at  the  mill  door  as  the  procession  passed, 
and  then  went  in  and  shut  off  the  water,  so  that  tlio 
mill  was  silent  at  the  time  of  the  burial.  When  the 
people  came  away,  the  mill  was  running  again,  and, 
somje  of  them  thought,  furiously.  They  said  in  the  low 
tones  to  which  the  recent  solemnity  had  reduced  their 
utterance  that  they  reckoned  Overdale  had  been  at  his 
jug  again;  they  moralized  the  fact  as  a  great  pity  for 
so  smart  a  man  as  he  was  when  sober. 

Captain  Bickler  arrived  too  late  for  the  funeral  ;  he 
had  been  electioneering  in  another  part  of  the  county  ; 
and  he  told  Powell  he  was  truly  sorry,  for  he  would 
have  liked  to  address  the  friends.  It  was  an  occasion 
which  he  might  have  hoped  to  improve  politically,  per 
haps,  but  Powell  was  himself  so  moved  by  the  whole 
affair  that  he  could  not  make  the  ironical  comment 
which  tempted  him.  The  sight  of  Bickler  reminded 
him  of  the  brooch  which  he  had  not  yet  returned  to 
him;  he  felt  in  his  waistcoat  pocket  for  it,  and  he  was 
rather  glad  to  find  that  he  had  left  it  in  his  week-day 
clothes;  it  would  have  been  no  more  the  occasion  for 
its  return  than  for  the  irony  which  he  forebore. 

Though  he  had  postponed  the  raising  out  of  respect 
for  Bellam,  he  had  done  so  with  a  reluctance  which  Ann 
more  than  half  shared  with  him.  Felix  and  Jessamy 
had  arranged  to  come  out  to  the  raising  on  the  date 
fixed,  and  now  Ann  was  afraid  that  they  might  not  be 
able  to  corne.  But  there  was  no  help  for  it,  and  Powell 
held  so  strongly  to  their  coming,  if  they  possibly  could, 
that  he  almost  convinced  Ann  they  would  be  sure  to 
come. 


IN  her  borrowed  trust  Ann  gave  herself  so  entirely 
to  the  cares  and  labors  which  now  fell  to  her  that  the 
days  went  by  without  her  duly  noticing  the  absence 
of  any  further  word  from  Jessamy.  When  the  time 
came  for  the  raising,  on  a  bright  Saturday  of  Septem 
ber,  she  was  so  much  more  distracted  that  she  accepted 
without  the  bitter  regret  which  it  would  have  brought 
to  her  in  a  freer  mind  the  fact  that  Jessamy  and  Felix 
were  really  not  coming.  They  sent  out  with  their  let 
ter  a  basket  of  baker's  cakes,  such  as  only  the  town 
could  supply,  with  oranges  up  from  Xew  Orleans,  and 
a  bag  of  coffee  to  indemnify  Ann  for  the  coffee  she 
must  not  stint  for  the  raising.  Jessamy  wrote  that 
Felix  was  not  quite  well  enough  to  come,  but  she  would 
write  soon  again;  and  in  the  excitement  of  applying 
their  gifts  to  the  feast,  and  the  confusion  of  the  time, 
Ann  did  not  remember  to  grieve  enough  for  him  till  the 
whole  affair  was  over.  She  had  made  coffee  by  gallons ; 
and  there  were  crisp  crusted  chicken  pies,  wide  and 
deep,  which  she  baked  in  the  brick  out-oven  in  her  milk- 
pans,  and  served  smoking-hot  with  plates  of  cold  ham 
and  cold  tongue,  and  platters  of  hot  shortened  bis 
cuit,  and  bread  and  butter;  it  was  the  time  for  new 
apples,  and  dishes  of  apple-sauce  alternated  with  the 
plates  and  platters. 

The  table  was  contrived  of  boards  stretched  on  the 
carpenters'  trestles,  and  the  cold  things  were  placed 


NEW    LEAF    MILLS 

on  it  early  in  the  day  and  covered  with  mosquito-netting 
against  the  flies,  after  due  debate  with  Rosy  and  the 
little  girls,  indulged  in  minor  details  but  overruled  in 
the  great  essentials.  Some  of  the  farm  wives  had  come 
to  help,  and  Lizzie  Bladen  came  with  her  father.  He 
lent  all  the  consequence  to  the  affair  that  Powell  had 
hoped,  and  here  and  there  he  helped  a  little.  Lizzie 
helped  a  great  deal,  in  spite  of  the  flourishing  politeness 
of  Captain  Bidder.  He  had  come  earlier  than  he  had 
come  to  Bellamys  funeral,  and  his  courtly  zeal  in  sec 
onding  the  girl  at  every  movement  made  her  part  of 
the  joke  which  he  became  with  the  other  men  waiting 
to  be  served.  The  jokers  spared  her  as  much  as  they 
could,  but  they  were  not  skilful;  Bickler  made  believe 
to  like  it,  and  encouraged  it  for  himself  in  defending 
her  from  it.  Ann  saw  his  neglect  of  Rosy,  to  whom 
he  scarcely  spoke,  and  her  heart  burned,  though  she 
could  not  have  wanted  him  to  notice  Rosy;  she  saw 
with  helpless  compassion  the  pain  of  the  young  girl  he 
was  making  conspicuous. 

In  all  twenty  six  or  seven  farmers,  counting  their 
big  boys,  came  to  put  up  the  frame  which  the  car 
penters  had  got  ready.  The  smooth  hewn  sills,  mortised 
for  the  studs,  lay  beside  the  stone  foundation.  When 
the  sills  had  been  placed  and  the  studs  and  joists  fitted 
into  the  mortises,  the  plates  to  bear  the  second  story 
were  raised  with  the  heaviest  lifting  of  the  day,  and  a 
second  row  of  joists  and  studs  fitted  into  them.  Then 
the  timbers  to  support  the  roof  were  fitted  on  the  stud 
ding,  and  the  rafters  raised  in  rows  the  whole  length 
of  the  house  on  either  side  and  pinned  together  at  the 
comb  of  the  roof. 

The  work  went  on  in  the  rivalry  of  separate  gangs, 
with  captains  for  each.  At  raisings  where  whiskey 

was  furnished,  the  work  was  delayed  by  fights  over 

90 


NEW    LEAF    MILLS 

disputed  points  between  the  chosen  or  self -chosen  cham 
pions.  Even  now  without  whiskey  it  was  slow  work 
getting  the  frame  of  the  house  together,  and  the  hill 
on  the  southwest  of  it  was  casting  long  afternoon 
shadows  over  the  grassy  space  in  front  of  the  frame 
before  the  last  pin  was  driven  into  the  posts.  On  this 
grassy  space  Ann  had  put  her  tables,  and  now  in  the 
pleasant  shadow  she  invited  her  steaming  guests  to  sit 
down.  The  jollity  of  the  day  mounted  to  a  climax; 
jokes  that  went  round  for  the  second  or  third  season 
were  hailed  with  the  same  hospitality  as  the  sarcasms 
and  railleries  that  remembered  the  events  of  the  work  or 
greeted  the  feats  of  the  workers  at  the  feast.  The 
men  were  in  their  shirt-sleeves  and  bare  heads;  the 
women  who  passed  behind  them  and  filled  their  cups 
and  heaped  their  plates  were  demurely  clad  in  their 
second  best  and  hid  their  smiles  in  the  depth  of  their 
sunbonnets. 

The  victuals  were  all  praised,  but  Ann  was  praised 
most  for  her  coffee  and  for  holding  out  against  whiskey. 
The  m'en  joked  Powell  for  the  weakening  that  some 
of  them  said  he  showed,  when  he  asked  them  to  the 
raising  and  acknowledged  that  there  would  be  nothing 
stronger  than  coffee  to  drink.  They  roared  at  that,  and 
then  one  of  them  called  to  him,  "  Owen,  what  did  you 
say  was  the  correspondence  of  a  hoss?"  and  the  rest 
waited  for  their  pleasure  in  the  gibe. 

"  Oh,  you've  got  hold  of  the  wrong  word,  Mr.  Blake- 
ley,"  Powell  answered,  with  smooth  formality.  "  What 
you  want  to  know  is  the  correspondence  of  a  donkey." 

The  retort  was  on  the  local  level;  but  it  took  time 
for  it  to  reach  home.  Ann  dis.lj^ed.....itxjand  dreaded 
the  effect.  Then  the  man  rose  jovially  in  the~sE5uF 
that  went  up,  and  stumbled  over  to  Powell's  place,  and 
put  his  arm  round  his  shoulders  and  began  to  explain 
7  91 


NEW    LEAF    MILLS 

and  apologize.  The  men  all  became  better  friends  with 
Powell,  and  one  after  another  they  complimented  him 
for  his  part  in  the  raising,  for  his  knowledge  and  his 
practical  skill.  Their  praises  brought  him  to  his  feet, 
and  in  a  speech  jvhjdi_j^  and  then 

jsroud  as  it  went  on  he  told  how  in  his  early  backwoods 
days  he  had  been  captain  at  log-cabin  raisings.  He 
was  beginning  to  own  with  modest  pride,  and  Ann  was 
beginning  J^£ejy*Jfor^nn  again,  that  for  notching  a 
log  to  receive  the  next  when  it  was  in  position,  he  had 
not  his  superior,  if  his  equal,  when  he  was  stopped  by 
one  of  his  guests  with  a  joyous  shout. 

"  Hello,  hello,  hello !"  Every  one  turned  with  him 
toward  the  frame  of  the  new  house.  The  upright  sup 
porting  the  peak  of  the  nearest  gable  had  broken  from 
the  pin  that  held  it  and  now  swung  dangling. 

Through  the  general  laugh  broke  cries  of  "  Why 
didn't  you  drive  in  that  pin,  Owen  ?"  and  "  I  thought 
you  was  a  better  hand  than  that,"  and  "  Oh,  well,  it 
ain't  a  log  cabin,  anyway,"  and  "  I  reckon  Owen  was 
too  excited  to  hit  that  last  pin  on  the  head." 

Powell  stood  fixed  and  silent,  smiling  shamefacedly, 
till  one  of  the  men  said :  "  Well,  I'd  like  to  go  up  and 
fix  that  pin,  just  to  show  Owen  how  he  used  to  do  it. 
But  I  couldn't  do  it  on  no  coffee.  Hain't  you  got  a 
jug  of  corn  juice  around  somewheres,  Mrs.  Powell?" 

Powell  called  out :  "  Nobody  must  think  of  touching 
it.  Keep  on  at  what  you're  doing,  friends,  and  I'll 
see  to  that  piece  of  studding  in  good  time." 

He  was  going  to  enlarge  upon  the  incident  and  draw 
a  moral  from  it  for  himself  and  others,  but  another 
noisy  outbreak  stopped  him. 

"  Well,  here  comes  Jake,  and  I  reckon  he's  going 
to  take  a  hand;  he's  had  some  corn  juice  of  his  own." 

"  Why,  he's  got  it  with  him !" 

92 


NEW    LEAF    MILLS 

Powell  saw  Overdale  reeling  across  the  road  from  the 
side  door  of  the  mill  and  floundering  toward  the  new 
house;  he  had  a  black  jug  in  his  hand;  he  shouted, 
"  I'll  show  you  how  to  fix  that ;  I've  got  the  thing  to 
do  it  with." 

His  voice  was  not  drunk,  though  his  gait  was,  but 
he  corrected  that,  holding  himself  strongly  erect  as  some 
of  the  men  started  toward  him.  "  Better  nobody  touch 
me  if  he  don't  want  his  head  cracked/'  and  then  he 
staggered  on  again,  but  securely  enough. 

Powell  came  politely  forward.  "  If  Mr.  Overdale 
wants  to  strike  a  blow  on  my  new  house,  and  mend 
my  unworkman-like  job,  he'll  want  a  tool." 

He  held  out  the  mallet  he  had  used  in  failing  to 
drive  the  pin  home,  and  the  miller  took  it,  glancing 
back  and  forth  from  Powell  to  the  mallet. 

Then  he  flung  it  from  him  with  a  roar :  "  Didn't  I 
say  I  got  the  thing  to  do  it  with  ?  What  the  hell— 

He  got  to  the  ladder  which  had  been  left  standing 
against  the  house,  and  began  to  climb  it.  "  Any  one 
touch  this  ladder!"  he  threatened  the  half-dozen  who 
rushed  to  stop  him. 

"  Owen !"  Ann  appealed,  in  her  terror. 

"  I'm  going  to,  my  dear,"  Powell  said,  as  if  there 
had  been  a  full  explanation.  He  put  his  neighbors 
aside  with  authority,  and  took  hold  of  the  ladder.  "  Get 
down,  you  tipsy  fool !  Do  you  think  I'm  going  to  have 
your  blood  on  my  house?"  He  shook  the  ladder  and 
looked  up  at  Overdale,  lifting  a  hand  to  pull  him  down. 

Instead  of  stooping  over  to  strike  him  with  the  jug, 
as  every  one  expected,  in  terror  or  amusement,  Over- 
dale  gave  a  crazy  laugh,  and  clambered  out  of  reach. 
He  swung  himself  upward  with  one  hand,  holding  to 
his  jug  with  the  other,  and  when  he  reached  the  roof- 
plate  he  twisted  himself  in  and  out  through  the  rafters 

93 


NEW    LEAF    MILLS 

till  he  reached  the  gable  where  the  stud  was  dangling 
loose.  He  gathered  it  in  and  fixed  it  in  its  place,  and 
then  drew  back  to  hammer  the  pin  home  with  the  jug. 
"  I'll  show  you  what  whiskey  can  do." 

The  joking  applause  which  would  have  hailed  a  safer 
feat  failed  on  the  open  lips  of  the  gazers  below.  Once, 
twice,  three  times  the  miller  drove  at  the  pin,  shatter 
ing  the  jug  and  spilling  the  whiskey  in  the  air.  He 
drew  back  for  a  blow  with  what  was  left  of  the  jagged 
neck  and  shoulders  of  the  jug,  but  he  missed  his  mark 
and  lunged  forward  into  the  air.  He  turned  and 
sprawled  with  a  bat-like  spread  in  his  fall  and  struck 
in  a  heap  at  the  base  of  the  house  on  a  loose  mass  of 
shingles  lying  there. 


XVI 

IN  the  last  hour  which,  close  upon  midnight,  ended 
the  day,  Ann  said  to  her  husband,  as  she  had  said  more 
than  once  before,  "  I  certainly  thought  he  would  kill 
you,  Owen,  when  you  shook  the  ladder  under  him." 

"  Oh,  there  wasn't  the  least  danger !  But  he  may 
thank  his  stars  that  he  didn't  kill  himself,  in  his  fall. 
If  it  hadn't  been  for  those  shingles  I  had  left  there  to 
season  he  wouldn't  have  got  off  with  a  few  broken  ribs 
and  a  dislocated  shoulder."  Powell  was  tempted  to 
say  "  shoulder  or  two  "  for  the  joke,  but  Ann  did  not 
look  as  if  she  could  bear  even  so  good  a  joke,  and  he 
stopped  short  of  it. 

"  I  suppose  we'll  hear  from  Felix  to-morrow.  I'm 
glad,  now,  he  and  Jessamy  didn't  come.  It  would  have 
tried  Felix.  But  still  I'm  anxious.  I  hope  he  isn't 
worse." 

"  Oh,  you  may  be  sure  of  that,"  Powell  answered. 

"  Dear,  dear!"  Ann  said.  "  I  don't  see  how  he  can 
live  on  that  hot  feather-bed  in  that  choking  little  room, 
swarming  with  mosquitoes."  She  meant  Overdale,  now, 
in  a  natural  reversion  from  Felix,  and  Powell  under 
stood. 

"  Oh,  he's  used  to  it,  and  it's  an  improvement  on  the 
buffalo  robe  in  the  mill.  I'm  sorry  for  Dick  sitting  up 
with  him  in  that  atmosphere.  But  he  probably  doesn't 
mind  it." 

"  Yes,  poor  Richard !  Everything  comes  on  the 
child." 

95 


NEW    LEAF    MILLS 

"  Well,  he's  got  that  other  child  to  help  him  bear 
it.  Why  her  father  chooses  to  live  here,  with  such  a 
girl  as  that !  He  is  really  a  gentleman  in  his  breeding. 
He  wasn't  much  use  at  the  hard  work  of  raising,  but 
his  being  there  kept  the  others  in  check,  and  certainly 
lent  all  dignity  to  the  occasion  I  could  have  wished. 
He  quite  conceived  of  that  when  I  asked  him." 

"  It  was  fortunate,  after  all,  that  Captain  Bickler 
was  there,"  Ann  said,  reluctantly.  "  If  it  hadn't  been 
for  him,  I  don't  know  how  we  could  have  got  the  doctor 


so  soon." 


"  If  it  hadn't  been  for  Bickler's  horse  we  couldn't," 
Powell  consented,  "  by  at  least  fifteen  minutes.  How 
ever,  it  enabled  Bickler  to  make  a  display  of  public 
spirit,  and  it  was  a  good  stroke  of  electioneering. 
Though,  as  for  the  matter  of  that,  I  had  got  Overdale 
into  very  fair  shape  before  the  doctor  came." 

"  Yes,"  Ann  assented,  to  his  satisfaction.  "  Well,  if 
it  will  only  make  them  all  like  us  a  little  better !" 

"  I'm  afraid  it  won't  make  Overdale.  But  as  for 
the  others,  they  will  like  us  better  because  they've  done 
us  a  good  turn,  and  because  you  gave  them,  such  a  good 
supper." 

Powell  wound  his  watch  for  the  night;  but  it  was 
long  before  Ann  slept,  and  she  was  up  earlier  than 
usual  to  have  Dick's  breakfast  for  him  as  soon  as  he 
came  home.  He  came  at  sunrise,  and  reported  the 
miller  restless  through  the  night;  he  testified  to  the 
faithfulness  of  his  own  vigil  by  falling  asleep  in  his 
chair.  His  mother  had  to  wake  him  for  his  coffee. 

"  Poor  boy !"  she  said ;  and  then  she  asked,  "  Why 
didn't  you  bring  Lizzie  with  you?" 

"  I  didn't  like  to  ask  her,  mother,"  the  boy  explained. 
"  Mrs.  Overdale  got  her  something.  I'm  going  back, 

now,  to  let  her  off." 

96 


NEW    LEAF    MILLS 

It  appeared  that  Richard  was  to  relieve  yet  another 
watcher,  in  the  miller's  wife  herself.  It  seemed  as  if 
he  had  scarcely  gone  out  of  the  front  door  when  she 
came  through  the  corn-field  to  the  back,  with  the  sun 
at  her  shoulders,  throwing  her  long  shadow  on  the  floor. 

Ann  looked  up  from  the  table  where  she  was  pour 
ing  herself  a  cup  of  coffee. 

"  He  in  ?"  the  woman  asked ;  and  Ann  understood 
that  she  was  asking  if  Mr.  Powell  was  at  home. 

"  Why,  he's  still  sleeping,"  Ann  said.  "  Won't  you 
'come  in  and  sit  down — and  have  a  cup  of  coffee  ?" 

The  woman  made  no  answer,  but  remained  in  the 
doorway.  "  'Pears  like  as  if  he  wanted  to  see  him." 

"  Well,  I  will  send  him  as  soon  as  he's  had  his  break 
fast.  How  did  Mr.  Overdale  get  through  the  night?" 

The  miller's  wife  remained  irresponsive.  "  And  you 
say  he  hain't  got  nawthin'  ag'in'  him  ?" 

"  Why,  certainly  not.  What  do  you  mean  by  asking 
that  again,  Mrs.  Overdale?  What  could  my  husband 
have  against  yours  ?" 

"  'Pears  like  as  if  he  thought  he  had." 

"  Very  well,  then ;  he  had  better  tell  Mr.  Powell  what 
it  is  when  he  comes." 

"He  won't  have  to  tell  I  been  here?"  the  woman 
asked. 

"  Not  unless  you  want  him  to." 

The  miller's  wife  made  no  more  answer  to  this  than 
to  the  other  questions.  After  a  moment  of  hesitation 
she  went  away  as  silently  as  she  came. 

Ann  let  Owen  sleep  on  like  a  child  from  his  fatigue, 
and  she  kept  the  other  children  from  waking  him  by 
sending  them  to  play  in  the  new  house. 

By  the  time  he  had  breakfasted  and  was  looking  for 
his  hat  to  go  over  to  the  miller's  a  friendly  voice  called 

to  him  from  the  front  of  the  cabin.    It  was  the  doctor, 

97 


NEW    LEAF    MILLS 

who  had  his  joke  in  saluting  him  as  Dr.  Powell,  and 
said  he  had  just  come  from  the  miller's. 

"  And  how  did  you  find  him  ?"  Powell  asked. 

The  doctor  twisted  himself  between  his  saddle-bags 
and  looked  round.  "  It  seems  queer  not  to  have  either 
of  your  mills  going." 

"  Yes,  we're  left  in  pretty  bad  shape,  and  the  silence 
sounds  rather  solemn.  By  the  way,  it  does  sound  ?" 

"  So  it  does,  so  it  does !" 

"  But  that  wasn't  what  you  wanted  to  talk  about  ?" 

"  Well,  not  before  company,"  the  doctor  said,  with 
a  laugh.  He  lowered  his  voice.  "  There's  something 
I  don't  understand  about  Overdale.  He's  in  no  danger 
from  his  broken  bones.  But  there's  something  011  his 
mind,  and  it  seems  to  have  been  there  a  good  while, 
and  it  seems  to  be  about  you — 

"  Would  you  mind  my  wife's  hearing  ?"  Powell 
asked. 

"  Why,  if  it  won't  worry  Mrs.  Powell." 

"  The  things  that  worry  my  wife  are  the  things  she 
doesn't  hear,"  Powell  said,  and  the  two  men  had  their 
laugh ;  and  then  he  called  into  the  cabin,  "  Ann !"  She 
came  to  the  door.  "  The  doctor  wants  to  talk  to  us 
about  Overdale." 

"  Will  he  die  ?"  Ann  gasped. 

"  No,  I  don't  think  he  will,"  the  doctor  said,  "  un 
less  Owen  here  " — Ann  did  not  mind  the  doctor's  call 
ing  her  husband  by  his  first  name — "  wants  to  do  his 
worst  by  him." 

"  What  do  you  mean,  doctor  ?"  But  Ann  partly 
knew,  though  not  clearly. 

"  I  can't  say,  exactly.  But  there's  something  on  his 
mind,  about  the  sale  of  the  mills  to  your  family.  It 
isn't  anything  reasonable;  it's  something  he's  ashamed 

of  while  he's  afraid  of  it.     He  seems  to  think  Owen 

98 


NEW    LEAF    MILLS 

knows,  but  he  won't  tell  it  himself.  It's  some  sort  of 
hallucination.  I  can't  get  it  out  of  him;  but  unless 
somebody  does — and  I  believe  Owen  can — at  any  rate, 
it  seems  to  be  connected  with  him  and  his  brothers — 

"  I  just  knew  it !"  Ann  broke  in.  That's  what  that 
poor  thing's  been  groping  after."  She  told  the  doctor 
of  the  question  the  miller's  wife  had  only  just  now 
been  with  her  to  repeat  from  their  first  meeting.  "  She 
said  he  seemed  to  want  to  see  Owen,  and  if  you  think — " 

"  I  think  Owen  had  better  see  him,  then." 

Ann  hesitated.  "  I  don't  want  him  to  take  any  risks 
with  the  crazy  wretch." 

"  Oh,  there  isn't  the  least  danger,"  Powell  put  in, 
eagerly.  "  Where  is  my  hat  ?  I'll  go  at  once." 

"  I've  got  half  a  mind  to  go  with  you,"  she  said. 
"  If  that  wretch  should  have  his  shotgun — 

The  doctor  laughed.  "  He  hasn't  got  his  shotgun 
in  bed  with  him,  Mrs.  Powell." 

"  Well,  then  go  at  once,  Owen.  But  don't  be  a 
minute  longer  than  you  can  help." 

"  I'll  be  back  directly,  my  dear,"  and  with  the  doc 
tor's  riding  off  Powell  was  half-way  to  the  miller's 
house. 

It  was  sultry  with  the  heat  which  in  the  Middle 
West  comes  with  September  when  the  summer  ought 
to  be  gone.  A  swarm  of  flies  buzzed  up  from  the  bed 
and  out  of  the  room  where  the  miller  lay  when  Owen 
entered  from  the  kitchen,  where  Mrs.  Overdale  met  him. 
He  sat  down  where  he  could  look  the  bruised  and  broken 
man  in  the  face. 

"  N"ow,  what  is  it  you've  got  on  your  mind,  Over- 
dale?"  he  demanded,  severely.  The  fact,  whatever  it 
was,  would  interest  him  the  more  if  it  were  something 
of  mystical  portent,  but  if  it  were  merely  resentment 
it  would  still  interest  him.  "  You  have  something  on 

99 


NEW    LEAF    MILLS 

your  mind  concerning  me,  and  for  your  own  sake  " — 
Powell  was  not  indifferent  for  himself,  but  he  repeated 
— "  for  your  own  sake,  I  want  to  know  what  it  is." 

The  miller  seemed  clear  enough  to  this  appeal. 
"  You  reckon  I'm  a-goin'  to  tell  you  ?"  he  returned, 
sulkily. 

"  Not  necessarily.  But  I'm  going  to  find  out.  When 
did  you  begin  to  harbor  this  grudge  against  my  brothers 
and  me  ?  Was  it  because  we  bought  the  mills  away 
from  you  ?" 

"What  if  it  was?" 

"  Then  that's  when  it  began.  But  we  kept  you  on, 
and  I  have  assured  you  that  we  wished  to  keep  you, 
somehow,  after  we  had  put  in  the  paper  machinery. 
Then  it  wasn't  on  business  grounds  that  you  hated  us  ?" 

"  Who  ever  said  I  hated  you  ?"  the  miller  demanded. 

"  I  didn't  know  what  other  name  to  give  your  be 
havior.  You  must  have  had  some  strong  objection,  at 
any  rate.  Did  you  think  we  meant  you  some  sort  of 
harm  ?" 

"  I  don't  know  what  you  meant,  or  what  you  done,  or 
whether  you  done  it.  But  there  it  was." 

"What  was?" 

"  You  think  I'll  tell  ?  It  can  kill  me,  but  I'll  keep  it 
to  myself." 

Powell  glimpsed  a  darkling  something  which  fasci 
nated  him.  He  took  a  longer  turn  about.  "  I  know," 
he  said,  almost  tenderly,  "that  we  often  attach  con 
sequences  to  things  which  happen  far  beyond  their 
reasonable  effect,  I  remember  when  I  was  a  boy  that 
I  would  be  throwing  a  stone  at  a  tree  or  a  post,  and  I 
would  say  to  myself,  '  Now  if  I  hit  it  I  shall  live  out 
the  year,  and  if  I  don't — 

The  miller  lifted  himself  on  his  elbow;  then  he 
dropped  back  with  a  curse  of  pain ;  he  would  not  let 

100 


NEW    LEAF    MILLS' 

it  be  a  groan.  "  What  do  you  mean  by  living  out  the 
year?" 

"  Simply  what  I  say.    What  could  I  mean  ?" 

The  miller  lay  silent.  Then  he  turned  his  bandaged 
head  on  the  pillow  and  said,  as  if  he  had  been  tacitly 
working  to  that  conclusion,  "  I'll  be  derned  if  I'll  tell 
you." 

Powell  sat  patiently  confident  of  some  other  con 
clusion,  and  after  a  minute  Overdale  turned  his  face 
toward  him  again.  "  There's  always  got  to  be  two  to  a 
bargain.  If  it  was  a  spell  that  you  devils  laid  on  me, 
to  git  me  out  of  the  way,  you  must  'a'  knowed  what 
it  was  before  you  agreed  to  pay  the  price,  and  all  your 
pretendin'  to  want  me  to  stay  couldn't  fool  me.  Your 
sayin'  that  about  a  year's  time,  just  now,  shows  you 
always  had  it  on  your  mind.  But  I'll  fool  you  yit.  I'll 
live  the  year  out,  in  spite  of  you." 

It  seemed  to  Powell  that  another  and  clearer  glimpse 
of  the  miller's  trouble  was  offering  itself;  he  thought 
he  could  best  promote  the  revelation  by  postponing  it, 
and  he  rose  to  go,  but  more  than  half  feigning  to  go. 
"  Very  well,  Overdale,  when  you  feel  ready  to  tell  me 
what  you  mean  I'll  try  to  help  you;  but  as  it  is  you 
won't  let  me.  I  must  leave  you  now ;  this  excitement  is 
bad  for  you — " 

"  No,  you  don't!  No,  you  don't!"  The  miller  shook 
his  fist  and  tried  to  writhe  up  from  his  bed.  "  You 
know  as  well  as  I  do  that  when  you  took  the  mills  you'd 
fixed  it  so  I  wouldn't  live  more'n  a  year  after  you 
bought  'em." 

Now  it  was  all  plain  before  Powell.  He  was  in  the 
presence  of  the  anguish  of  a  foreboding;  he  had  once 
known  the  terror  and  the  stress  of  it  in  his  hypo- 
chondriacal  youth;  he  had  seen  his  own  brother  again 

and  again  in  its  shadow;  and  his  heart  was  glad  that 

101 


: tfEW    LEAF    MILLS 

he  could  lift  the  incubus  from  the  wretched  soul  which 
he  seemed  to  see  writhing  before  him.  But  he  must 
treat  the  pseudo-foreknowledge  reverently,  though  he 
could  have  laughed  it  away. 

"  Why,  Overdale,  you've  lived  the  time  out  already. 
We  bought  the  mills  in  August  last  year — two  months 
before  you  knew  about  it." 

"  What!"  the  miller  shouted.  In  spite  of  his  bruises 
and  bandages,  he  raised  himself  on  his  sound  arm  arid 
stared  at  Powell,  as  if  to  take  in  with  his  eyes  what  his 
ears  had  known.  Then  he  dropped  back  and  lay  still. 


XVII 

"  I  CERTAINTY  thought  he  was  dead/'  Powell  said, 
telling  it  all  in  detail  to  his  wife  when  he  came  home 
and  found  her  on  the  point  of  following  him  to  the 
miller's  house.  "  It  was  not  so  long,  though,  before 
we  brought  him  to.  Or,  rather,  I  did."  He  corrected 
himself,  not  to  refuse  the  credit  justly  his  due.  "  The 
woman  was  not  much  help,  though  she  knew  that  tea 
would  have  more  effect  with  him  than  whiskey ;  be  more 
of  a  contrast,"  and  Powell  did  not  deny  himself  the 
comfort  of  a  laugh.  Then  he  mused  the  case  in  a 
silence  which  Ann  interrupted. 

"  And  what  did  he  say  when  he  came  to  ?" 

"  Why,  practically  nothing.  He  wanted  to  get  up 
and  go  over  to  the  mill.  The  whole  affair  was  as  simple 
as  having  a  tooth  pulled.  You  nurse  your  terror  of  the 
pain  to  come  in  infinitely  greater  pain,  and  when  the 
dentist  jerks  the  tooth  out  and  the  whole  thing  is  over 
you're  simply  ashamed  of  yourself,  and  you  don't  want 
to  say  anything  about  it.  ~Not  but  what  there  are  real 
presentiments;  but  for  the  most  part  they  are  lying 
intimations  from  the  devils  who  delight  in  tormenting 
people  in  this  world  when  they  escape  from  the  hells." 

Ann  was  not  satisfied  with  the  Doctrinal  philosophy 
of  the  case.  She  could  not  help  thinking  of  the  miller's 
misery  during  the  year  past,  but  she  put  it  out  of  her 
mind  with  a  personal  consideration.  "  Well,  I  hope  he 

will  behave  himself  now  and  treat  you  decently." 

103 


NEW    LEAF    MILLS 

"  I  don't  count  on  it,"  Powell  said.  "  His  behavior 
is  from  the  character  that  he's  been  building  up  all 
his  life.  To  change  now  would  be  like  saving  his  soul 
by  a  death-bed  repentance.  He  will  be  more  likely 
to  show  that  he  doesn't  owe  me  anything  by  behaving 
worse  than  ever."  The  notion  moved  Powell  to  his 
usual  laughter,  but  he  checked  himself  at  the  continued 
gravity  of  his  wife's  face.  "  Well,  what  is  it  now, 
Ann?" 

"  Nothing.  I  thought  if  I  once  had  Overdale  off  my 
mind  I  shouldn't  care  for  anything.  But  I  do.  There's 
some  trouble  with  Rosy.  She's  been  crying." 

Powell  was  guiltily  sensible  of  the  brooch  in  his 
waistcoat  pocket;  the  crazy  question  whether  it  could 
be  that  which  was  making  Rosy  cry  went  through  him, 
and  he  thought  his  wife  might  be  going  to  speak  of  it ; 
but  she  said: 

"  You  noticed  that  fellow  scarcely  looked  at  her  yes 
terday,  and  didn't  speak  to  her  at  all.  He's  trying  to 
break  off." 

"  Well,  isn't  that  what  you  wanted  him  to  do  ?" 

"  Yes,  but  when  it  comes  to  it,  and  I  see  her  taking 
on  so !  Oh,  I  wish  the  child  had  never  set  eyes  on  him ! 
Of  course  he  never  did  care  for  her,  and  now  that  he 
thinks  he's  going  to  be  elected  he  doesn't  want  even  to 
speak  to  her.  And  I  know  she's  got  her  heart  set  on 
him." 

"  But  do  you  know  that,  Ann  ?" 

"  What  else  would  she  be  crying  about  ?" 

"  You  might  ask  her.  But  seriously,  I  don't  think 
there's  the  least  danger  of  trouble  for  her." 

"  Oh,  you  never  think  there's  the  least  danger  of  any 
thing,  Owen!" 

"  Well,  but  how  often  has  she  met  him  ?  It  couldn't 
go  on  without  our  knowing.  He's  been  all  over  the 

104 


NEW    LEAF    MILLS 

county  drumming  up  delegates.  I  haven't  seen  him 
here  once  in  a  week,  and  then  he  hasn't  been  near  us." 

"  N"o,  not  us;  but  ROSY  has  met  him.  I  know  she  has. 
She  goes  out  with  the  children,  but  they  get  separated, 
and  she  comes  home  alone.  Not  always,  but  often 
enough  to  make  me  anxious.  Time  and  again  I've  been 
on  the  point  of  asking  her,  but  I  didn't  like  to;  Rosy 
is  proud.  She  does  her  work,  and  she  might  say  that 
was  enough  without  answering  questions.  She's  queer ; 
sometimes  I  think  she's  sly." 

"  Oh  no,  Ann !  She  mav  be  secret,  but  she  isn't 
sly." 

"  No,  I  mean  secret ;  she's  keeping  something  to  her 
self,  and  it  troubles  me.  Well,  I'm  going  to  watch 
her.  Here  comes  poor  Bellam's  boy.  He  said  he  was 
going  to  Spring  Grove,  and  I  told  him  to  ask  if  there 
were  any  letters  for  us." 

A  barefooted  boy  on  a  barebacked  horse,  the  last  left 
of  Bellam's  children  and  possessions,  rode  up  to  the 
cabin  door,  where  the  Powells  were  talking.  "  Here's 
y'ur  letter  fur  yuh,"  he  said  to  Ann,  taking  it  out  of 
his  open  shirt-front  and  holding  it  toward  her. 

"  Oh,  thank  you,  Jimmy.  Wait  and  I'll  get  you  a 
slice  of  cake."  Jimmy  waited;  then  he  thumped  his 
heels  into  the  horse's  ribs,  and  rode  away  with  his 
m'outh  instantly  full.  "  It's  from  Jessamy,"  Ann  said, 
opening  her  letter.  "  I  expected  she  would  write  after 
not  coming.  I  wish  they  could  see  how  well  the  new 
house  looks."  She  delayed  herself  with  a  glance  at  the 
frame  of  her  future  home  before  she  began  to  read. 
After  the  first  look  she  said,  "  Why  it's  dated  from  the 
City  and — "  She  crushed  the  sheet  together  and  gave 
it  to  Powell.  "  Felix  has  had  another  hemorrhage,  and 
they're  on  the  way  to  New  Orleans!  You  read  it, 

dear !"  she  said,  with  the  hem  of  her  apron  to  her  eyes. 

105 


NEW    LEAF    MILLS 

"  Well,  well/'  Powell  complied.  "  There's  nothing 
to  be  alarmed  about.  We'll  see  what  Jessamy  says.  If 
they're  going  South  it's  the  best  thing,  and  we'll  be  all 
the  better  prepared  for  them  in  the  spring."  Then  he 
read  on  to  himself,  as  people  begin  doing  when  they  are 
asked  to  read  for  others. 

"  Owen !"  his  wife  sharply  recalled  him. 

"  Oh !  Oh  yes !  Why,  she  just  says  that  he's  had  a 
little  attack,  and  they're  very  properly  going  South 
for  the  winter;  and — there  isn't  the  least  danger — 

"  Read  what  she  says  out  loud''  Ann  bade  him, 
severely,  and  then  he  did  so.  But  it  came  to  no  more 
in  substance  than  the  facts  they  both  knew  already. 
Jessamy  sent  her  love  and  her  husband's  to  all.  She 
said  the  doctor  thought  he  ought  to  get  away  before 
the  first  chilly  weather,  and  she  was  going  to  bring  him 
back  strong  and  well;  and  they  were  coming  straight 
to  the  mills.  If  there  was  not  room  enough  for  them 
in  the  new  house,  Felix  and  she  would  live  in  the  cabin 
till  they  could  build  for  themselves;  he  was  crazy  for 
the  place  now,  and  Owen  must  hurry  and  get  out  the 
stuff.  She  wrote  bravely,  even  gaily,  and  "  You  see," 
Powell  ended  for  her,  "  there  isn't  any  cause  for  anx 
iety." 

Ann  took  the  letter  he  held  illustratively  toward  her, 
and,  the  sadder  for  his  cheer,  folded  it  carefully  for 
another  reading  and  went  into  the  cabin. 

Rosy  was  coming  in  at  the  back  door  from  the  shed 
outside,  panting  as  if  she  had  been  running,  and  Ann 
thought  she  looked  pale.  "  Where  have  you  been, 
Rosy  ?  Where  are  the  children  ?" 

"  I  do'  know  where  the  childern  are,"  the  girl  an 
swered,  sullenly.  "  I  been  up  over  the  hill,  if  you  want 
to  know." 

"  You  mustn't  be  saucy,  Rosy,"  Ann  said ;  and  she 

106 


NEW    LEAF    MILLS 

added,  as  if  it  were  the  reason  why,  "  We've  had  bad 
news  about  Mr.  Powell's  brother." 

"  Oh,  have  you,  Mrs.  Powell  ?"  the  girl  broke  in,  with 
instant  contrition.  "I'd  just  lay  down  my  life  for 
him.  Has  he  had  another  bleeding  ?" 

'Yes.  And  they're  on  their  way  South  for  the 
winter." 

"Oh,  Mrs.  Powell!  But  that  '11  do  him  good 
won't  it?" 

'  The  doctor  thinks  so ;  I  hope  so.  And,  Eosy,  child, 
I'm  troubled  for  you,  too.  I'm  sorry  for  you.  I  saw 
what  happened  yesterday,  but  you  won't  believe  I'm 
sorry  for  you  when  I  say  I  was  glad  of  it." 

<  Yes,  I  will,  Mrs.  Powell !  But  I'm  all  right  now, 
and  you  don't  need  to  worry  a  bit  about  me.  I  reckon 
he's  got  as  good  as  he  give." 


XVIII 

THAT  morning,  while  the  doctor  was  talking  with  the 
Powells  at  the  cabin  door  about  Overdale,  Rosy  had 
gone  with  the  children  to  look  the  new  house  over  and 
help  rejoice  at  moving  into  it,  which  they  thought  could 
not  be  more  than  a  week  or  two  now.  She  left  them 
there  and  kept  on  up  over  the  hill.  "  Fll  be  back 
directly,"  she  called  down  to  them. 

At  the  bottom  of  the  hill  on  the  other  side  a  horse 
was  grazing  among  the  pawpaw  bushes,  with  his  bridle- 
rein  hanging  loosely  behind  his  ears  and  dropping 
round  his  mouth.  She  pretended  not  to  see  the  horse, 
so  that  she  need  not  turn  back ;  but  a  fire  of  conscious 
ness  blazed  over  her  face. 

Bickler  spoke  from  the  grass,  where  he  was  sitting 
near  the  horse's  head.  "  Hello,  Kosy !" 

She  did  not  answer. 

"  You  don't  seem  to  hear  very  well  this  morning, 
Rosy." 

Now  she  answered,  "  You  didn't  seem  to  see  very 
well  yesterday,  Captain  Bickler." 

"  Well,  no,  that's  a  fact,"  he  said,  easily.  "  That's 
what  I  thought  I'd  explain  if  you  happened  to  be  com 
ing  over  the  hill  this  morning." 

"  I  reckon  I  don't  want  any  explaining  from1  you," 
she  returned.  "  I  reckon  a  hired  girl  knows  when  she's 
a  hired  girl.  And  if  I'd  knowed  you  was  here  I 
wouldn't  'a'  happened  to  be  comin'  over  the  hill,  as 


you  say." 


108 


NEW    LEAF    MILLS 

"  Well,  maybe  you  would,  maybe  you  wouldn't." 
He  laughed  teasingly  up  into  her  face.  "  But  I'm  glad 
you  have  come.  I  didn't  see  any  one  that  looked  like 
a  hired  girl  yesterday;  I  saw  a  lady  helping  Mrs. 
Powell  that  I  thought  was  too  far  above  me  to 
speak  to." 

"  Did  you  ?"  Kosy  retorted,  scornfully.  "  You  spoke 
to  her  good  and  plenty  all  the  same." 

"  Oh,  you  mean  that  pale,  little  washed-out  snip  of  a 
child  ?  I  mean  the  lady  with  the  yellow  hair,  and  the 
big  blue  eyes,  and  the  cheeks  as  red  as  the  roses  she's 
named  after.  You  ain't  mad,  are  you,  Eosy  ?" 

"  Yes,  I  am  mad ;  and  you  mustn't  think  you  can 
come  it  over  me  any  longer,  Captain  Bickler.  I  reckon 
I  can  see  through  you  well  enough."  Rosy  ended  in 
effectually,  and  she  knew  it  as  well  as  the  man,  who 
laughed  again. 

"  I  didn't  know  you  were  going  anywhere,  Rosy. 
If  I  had  a  chin  like  that — I  wish  you  could  just  see  it 
from  here !" 

"  You  quit  your  foolin',  Captain  Bickler,  and  let 
me  past  or  I'll — " 

"  I  didn't  know  you  were  going  anywhere,  Rosy. 
But  don't  hurry.  I  want  to  argue  it  out  with  you. 
What  did  you  want  me  to  do  yesterday?  Get  up  be 
fore  'em  all  and  say,  '  Ladies  and  gentlemen,  I  wish 
to  announce  the  engagement  of  Miss  Rose  Hefmyer  and 
Captain  Harrison  Bickler '  ?  The  fellows  wouldn't 
have  done  another  stroke  of  work  on  Mrs.  Powell's 
chicken  pie,  and  old  Over  dale  wouldn't  have  had  a 
chance  to  fall  off  the  top  of  the  new  house.  I  met 
Doc  Jenner,  here,  just  now;  he  thinks  Overdale  didn't 
fracture  enough  ribs  to  hurt.  But  what  I  mean  to  say 
is  this,  Rosy.  It  won't  do  for  me  to  be  courting  you 

till  I'm  in  a  position  to  marry  you." 

109" 


NEW    LEAF    MILLS 

"  Who  as't  you  to  marry  me  ?"  she  demanded, 
fiercely. 

"  Well,  not  you.  And  I'm  not  going  to  let  you. 
When  it  comes  to  marrying  I  want  to  do  the  asking 
myself.  But  now  I'm  all  tied  up  with  this  electioneer 
ing.  If  it  was  known  I  was  running  after  a  girl  when 
I  ought  to  be  running  for  an  office  I  wouldn't  get  the 
office,  I'm  afraid." 

"  You  wouldn't  get  the  girl,  neither,  if  I  had  any 
say!" 

"Well,  all  right,  Eosy,  all  right.  We'll  see  about 
that  afterwards.  You  mustn't  think  I  don't  care  for 
you  if  I  don't  show  it  everywhere.  It's  the  whole  world 
to  me  to  meet  you  this  way,  every  once  in  a  while,  and 
have  a  little  friendly  chat.  I'll  tell  you  what,  Rosy. 
If  I'm  elected,  and  I  don't  see  but  what  I  will  be  the 
way  things  are  going  now,  I'll  want  some  old  friend  to 
call  on  evenings  after  the  legislature  adjourns.  I'll 
want  somebody  to  take  to  the  theater,  and  then  go  round 
and  have  an  oyster  stew." 

Rosy  stood  looking  at  him  where  he  sat  with  his  face 
lifted  toward  her,  but  she  said  nothing,  while  he  chewed 
on  a  blade  of  grass  which  he  plucked  up  from  between 
his  feet. 

"  I  know  a  lady  up  there  who  wants  a  girl.  You 
don't  lay  out  to  pass  the  winter  here  in  the  new  house," 
and  Bickler  laughed  at  the  phrase  which  had  become 
mockingly  current  in  the  neighborhood  from  the  Pow 
ells'  use  of  it.  "  You  would  suit  my  friend  first  rate ; 
kind  of  a  parlor  girl,  with  nothing  to  do  but  dust  and 
keep  the  place  in  order,  and  all  her  evenings  out.  I'll 
write  and  tell  her  I've  found  just  the  girl  for  her — " 

"  Mrs.  Powell,"  Rosy  broke  off  at  this  point  in  tell 
ing  Ann,  "  you'll  think  I  done  a  poorty  awful  thing." 

110 


NEW    LEAF    MILLS 

"  Why,  what  did  vou  do,  Rosy  ?"  Ann  asked,  fear- 
fully. 

"  I  just  run  right  up  to  him  and  slapped  him  in  the 
face  good  and  hard  so't  he  most  keeled  over,  and  then 
I  run  home  as  fast  as  I  could  foot  it."  Ann  did  not 
ask  why  she  had  done  this;  she  did  not  need  Rosy's 
explanation :  "  A  poor  girl  finds  out  a  good  many  things, 
especially  if  she's  got  worse  than  no  mother;  she  ain't 
like  a  girl  that's  been  raised  in  a  decent  family;  and 
when  she  ain't  much  more  than  a  child  she  under 
stands — understands — what  the  oldest  woman  in  the 
world  ortn't  to — " 

Rosy's  hardness  had  given  way  now,  and  she  was 
fetching  her  breath  in  dry  sobs. 

"  Oh,  poor  thing !"  Ann  tried  to  comfort  her,  but 
she  would  not  hear  further. 

"  I  wouldn't  'a'  minded  his  not  noticin'  mie  yester 
day;  and  I  wouldn't  'a'  cared  for  his  not  likin'  me  the 
way  he'd  like  some  one  that  wasn't  a  hired  girl ;  but  for 
him  to  sejjest  or  even  to  hint —  Oh,  do  you  think  I 
done  right,  Mrs.  Powell  ?" 

"  'Deed  and  'deed  I  think  you  did  just  exactly  right, 
Rosy,"  Ann  could  not  help  saying,  though  she  felt  that 
she  ought  to  add :  "  I  suppose  Mr.  Powell  would  say 
that  you  ought  to  bear  anything  rather  than  give  a 
blow.  But  a  good  smack  in  the  face  is  the  only  way 
with  such  a  man  if  he  meant  what  you  think  he  did — 

"  Oh,  do  you  reckon  he  couldn't  'a'  meant  it,  Mrs. 
Powell?  Say  it  if  you  do!  I'd  give  the  world  to  be 
lieve  he  didn't!  I'd  just  lay  down  and  let  him  walk 
over  me.  I  can't  help  it,  Mrs.  Powell — I  think  he's 
splendid  and  the  handsomest  and  smartest  man  in  the 
world,  and  I'd  give  my  life  if  he  didn't  mean  it." 

She  was  crying  her  heart  out  in  tears  now,  and  Ann 

was  puzzled  between  her  pity  for  the  girl  and  her  hope 

III 


NEW    LEAF    MILLS 

that  she  had  not  been  mistaken.  That  would  be  the 
quickest  and  easiest  way  out.  "  I  will  speak  to  Mr. 
Powell  and—" 

"  If  you  do  I'll  kill  myself!"  Rosy  jumped  up  from 
where  she  sat  bowed  over,  with  her  apron  at  her  eyes. 

Ann  took  her  in  her  arms.  "  Well,  well,  I  won't, 
then.  But  now  you  go  up  to  your  bed  and  lie  down 
awhile.  I'll  get  the  dinner;  and  don't  you  come  till 
I  call  you.  I  want  to  think  about  it." 

When  the  dinner  was  out  of  the  way  Ann  followed 
her  husband  over  to  the  new  house,  where  he  stopped 
to  speak  with  the  carpenters,  and  they  climbed  part 
way  up  the  hill  to  see  how  the  frame  looked  from  there. 
Then  she  told  him  what  Rosy  had  told  her;  she  knew 
that  Rosy  would  expect  her  to  break  her  promise. 

Instead  of  blaming  Rosy  for  her  violence  Powell 
said,  "  He  ought  to  be  cowhided !"  and  instantly  Ann, 
terror-stricken  to  silence,  saw  him  cowhiding  Bickler. 
But  after  the  silence  Powell  began  to  retreat  from  his 
impetuous  outburst.  "  Of  course,  he  could  say  he 
didn't  mean  anything  of  the  kind." 

"  I  was  almost  wishing  he  did  mean  it.  It  would 
put  an  end  to  the  thing  with  Rosy.  It's  the  plague 
of  my  life." 

"  Well,  well,"  Powell  resumed.  "  We  mustn't  mis 
judge  him."  With  that  brooch  in  his  pocket,  which  he 
had  never  yet  found  the  chance  of  making  Bickler  take 
back,  he  was  aware  of  wishing  to  give  him  more  than 
the  benefit  of  the  doubt.  "  Very  likely  he  does  know 
a  woman  there  who  wants  a  girl;  it  may  be  nothing 
more  than  that,  and  I  see  no  reason  why  he  shouldn't 
wish  to  marry  Rosy." 

"  Yes,  you  do,  my  dear,"  Ann  said.  "  She's  more 
than  his  equal  in  character  and  heart  and  good  sense, 

but  she  hasn't  any  education,  and  she  never  could  get 

112 


NEW    LEAF    MILLS 

any;  she  doesn't  see  the  use  of  it.  She's  a  wild  thing 
in  all  that,  and  she  always  will  be.  He'll  want  some 
body  that  will  do  him  credit  with  her  manners  if  he 
gets  on;  and  he  will  get  on;  he's  the  kind;  and  poor 
Rosy  has  no  more  manners  than  I  don't  know  what." 

"  Very  well.  Then  I  must  keep  an  eye  on  him.  I'm 
glad  it's  come  to  this.  Perhaps  he'll  be  so  angry  that 
he  won't  come  near  her  again." 

"  Trust  him  for  that !  And  I'm  afraid  Rosy  knew 
that  when  she  struck  him  that  way  she  lost  the  battle." 

"  Do  you  think  so,  Ann  ?  ISTow  I  see  it  in  quite  an 
other  light.  I  believe  she's  finished  with  him,  and  he 
understands  it.  You  must  keep  her  up  to  that  idea, 
Ann ;  and  I  will  keep  a  sharp  lookout  for  him."  This 
was  the  translation  of  Powell's  purpose  to  take  the  first 
opportunity  for  returning  the  brooch,  and  for  speaking 
his  mind  freely  to  Bickler  and  appealing  to  his  better 
nature.  He  did  not  see  why  he  should  not  deal  frankly 
with  the  fellow,  and  pending  the  cowhiding  which 
Bickler  possibly  deserved  put  the  case  before  him  and 
shame  him  into  letting  the  child  alone  or  into  marrying 
her.  ,Upon_.refl£ciio^.  he  did  not  see  why  marrying  her 
should  not  be  the  more  probable  outcome.  "  As  for  his 
ultimately  giving  any  trouble,"  he  said  aloud,  "  I  don't 
believe  there's  any  danger  of  it." 


XIX 

THE  habit  of  drink,  which  had  fouled  the  blood  in 
Overdale,  retarded  his  recovery.  He  had  naturally 
what  his  neighbors  called  powerful  healing  flesh,  such 
as  would  have  responded  with  prompt  self-cure  to  any 
hurt,  but,  as  it  was,  his  bruises  and  broken  bones  healed 
so  slowly  that  it  was  well  into  October  before  he  was 
out-of-doors.  Even  then  he  did  not  get  back  to  his  work 
in  the  mill.  A  temporary  miller,  as  Powell  carefully 
explained  to  him,  supplied  his  place;  an  amiable  and 
voluble  Pennsylvania  German,  whom  Ann  had  to  give 
his  meals,  though  he  slept  on  the  buffalo  robes  in  Over- 
dale's  den.  He  was  acceptable  to  the  younger  boys 
because  he  let  them  play  in  the  wheat-bins,  where  they 
buried  each  other  in  the  grain  and  stuffed  their  gar 
ments  out  with  it  to  unseemly  corpulence.  He  allowed 
Richard  to  run  the  mill  and  dress  the  burrs;  but  at 
table  he  was  dreadful  to  them  all  from  his  habit  of 
helping  himself  to  the  butter  with  his  knife  after  first 
sucking  it  clean.  He  was  gentle  with  their  father,  and 
even  respectful,  so  that  Ann  almost  liked  him. 

Powell  hurried  the  work  forward  on  the  new  house 
with  a  constancy  which  the  carpenters  scarcely  expected 
of  him,  and  which  he  could  himself  scarcely  have 
counted  on.  In  the  weeks  that  had  passed  the  roof 
was  shingled  and  the  walls  were  weather-boarded,  so 
that  the  black  walnut  gave  its  mellow  color  convincingly 
to  the  eye,  and  almost  persuaded  the  neighborhood  that 

114 


NEW    LEAF    MILLS 

its  natural  surface  was  as  handsome  as  the  white  paint 
or  the  red  brick  of  other  houses.  The  sash  was  glazed 
and  put  in  and  the  doors  hung,  and  then  the  rooms 
were  divided  off  and  lathed  for  the  plastering;  but  at 
this  point  Ann's  patience  gave  out,  and  she  decided  to 
leave  the  cabin  and  move  into  the  house  without  further 
waiting.  It  seemed  to  her  that  if  she  were  once  in  it 
the  work  could  be  pushed  forward  much  more  rapidly ; 
even  if  it  were  not  plastered  till  the  spring  came  with 
its  drying  winds,  they  would  suffer  less  discomfort  from 
the  cold  than  if  they  weathered  the  winter  through  in 
the  old  cabin. 

When  they  were  settled  in  it  Powell  found  a  beauty 
in  the  conditions  which  almost  tempted  him  to  delay. 
The  rooms  up  stairs  and  down,  with  their  neat  lathing, 
were  like  a  succession  of  latticed  bowers  which,  he  said, 
might  be  covered  with  vines;  he  made  believe  for  the 
children  that  plants  could  be  set  in  the  ground  beside 
the  chimney  and  trained  over  the  partitions  and  ceil 
ings.  There  was  an  open  hearth  in  each  room;  in  the 
first  cool  evenings  fires  were  kindled  on  them,  and  the 
soft  play  of  the  flames  through  the  lathing  was  so  much 
prettier  than  any  foliage  he  could  think  of  that  he  said 
there  was  no  hurry  to  cover  it  even  with  vines.  The 
children  fell  in  with  his  humor,  and  if  Ann  held  aloof 
it  was  without  reproach,  but  not  without  anxiety.  She 
was  anxious  about  Felix,  and  the  more  so  because  she 
could  not  make  Powell  share  her  troubled  mind.  Let 
ters  came  from  Jessamy,  not  very  often,  but  regularly 
enough,  reporting  at  first  that  the  warm  climate  was 
doing  Felix  all  the  good  that  they  had  expected;  then 
she  did  not  write  so  confidently,  but  only  said  that  he 
was  getting  on  and  was  waiting  eagerly  for  the  spring, 
so  that  he  could  go  !N"orth  and  could  come  to  them  at 

the  mills.    As  the  weeks  went  by  she  merely  told  what 

115 


NEW    LEAF    MILLS 

they  were  doing;  and  Owen  insisted  that  this  no  news 
was  good  news.  He  read  hopeful  auguries  into  Jes- 
samy's  omissions,  and  Ann  felt  herself  almost  culpable 
in  failing  to  share  his  confidence. 

"  The  dear  knows/'  she  said,  after  one  of  these  let 
ters  came,  "  I'd  like  to  believe  it,  Owen.  And  I  will 
believe  it  if  you  say  so.  You  ought  to  know  best.  But 
if  Jessamy  feels  the  way  you  say—  Well,  it  is  a  good 
thing,  her  sending  those  messages  from  him,  about 
hurrying  up  the  work  on  the  house ;  and  I  hope  you'll 
mind  them,  Owen.  Don't  wait  till  spring  before  you 
plaster.  We  could  get  on  very  well  ourselves,  but  an 
unplastered  house  will  be  no  place  for  a  sick  person." 

"  Felix  won't  be  sick  when  he  gets  here  in  April ; 
and  the  more  fresh  air  he  can  get  the  better." 

"  We  can  let  in  enough  air  through  the  windows. 
I  want  the  whole  house  finished  before  he  sets  foot  in 
it,  and  I'm  afraid  if  you  feel  that  way  about  it  you'll 
let  the  plastering  lag  along  and  it  won't  be  done  before 
summer." 

"  Oh,  you  needn't  be  afraid  of  that,"  Powell  said ; 
and  then,  "  Ann,"  he  continued,  "  do  you  know  whether 
Rosy  has  seen  anything  of  Bickler  lately?" 

"  Why,  no.    What  makes  you  think  she  has  ?" 

Owen  had  not  much  reason,  if  any,  to  think  she 
had,  and  he  had  brought  the  matter  in  partly  to  divert 
Ann  from  her  anxieties  about  Felix;  but  he  made  the 
most  of  a  fact  in  the  matter. 

"  I  met  him  yesterday  when  I  was  in  Spring  Grove, 
and  I  took  occasion  to  speak  plainly  to  him  about  Rosy." 
Owen  did  not  say  that  the  occasion  which  he  took  was 
the  long-delayed  return  of  the  brooch.  He  had  so 
often  forgotten  to  give  it  back  that  he  acquired  the 
greater  merit  with  himself  for  remembering  it  in  pass 
ing  Bickler's  office  and  going  in  expressly  to  restore 

116 


NEW    LEAF    MILLS 

the  gift.  Bickler  made  no  pretense  of  not  knowing 
why;  he  said  very  seriously  he  was  glad  Owen  had 
brought  it,  for  he  was  afraid  there  was  some  misunder 
standing  on  Rosy's  part.  He  looked  on  her  as  a  child, 
but  he  saw  how  his  giving  her  such  a  present  might 
appear  to  Mrs.  Powell,  and  he  wanted  Owen  to  tell 
Mrs.  Powell  so.  Without  telling  her  so  now  Owen  said, 
with  the  assumed  shrewdness  of  not  crediting  Bickler 
with  too  much  goodness,  "  I  think  he  wishes  particular 
ly  to  stand  well  with  us  at  present,  for  the  election  is 
going  to  be  very  close,  and  he  has  an  exaggerated  notion 
of  my  influence  in  this  neighborhood." 

"  If  he  has  any  notion  of  it  at  all,  Owen,  it's  ex 
aggerated.  Now  that  poor  Bellam  is  gone,  I  don't 
believe  you  could  influence  a  single  vote,"  Ann  said. 

Owen  laughed.  "  Why,  I  don't  know  but  Overdale 
is  working  round  to  my  way  of  thinking  in  some 
things." 

"  Well,  if  Bickler  will  only  let  that  poor  child  alone, 
I  don't  care  why  he  does  it.  Did  you  get  any  letters  ?" 

"  I  declare,  I  quite  forgot.  There's  a  letter  for  you 
from  Jessamy.  I  just  glanced  into  it;  she  seems  to  be 
writing  in  high  spirits  for  some  reason." 

"  It's  because  there's  such  a  decided  turn  for  the 
better  with  Felix,"  Ann  said,  running  her  eye  down 
the  page.  "  He's  better  than  he's  been  yet,  and  they're 
both  so  full  of  hope."  She  kept  on  reading.  "  Yes, 
there  isn't  one  unfavorable  symptom,  and  she's  just  as 
confident  now  as  he  has  always  been.  What  a  load  it 
takes  off  my  heart !  Now  we  must  begin  really  to  get 
ready  for  them.  If  only  you  won't  let  the  plastering 
lag  along!" 

"  Oh,  you  may  rest  assured  I  won't  do  that."  Powell 
felt  so  sure  of  himself  that  for  some  days  he  allowed 

his  interest  in  the  political  situation  to  occupy  him,  and 

117 


NEW    LEAF    MILLS 

did  not  agree  with  the  plasterers  to  come  until  the  day 
before  the  first  Tuesday  in  October.  "  Well,  to-morrow 
will  tell  the  tale  for  Master  Bickler,"  he  said,  as  if  that 
could  possibly  interest  Ann. 

That  night  he  got  his  harp  out,  for  the  first  time  in 
the  new  house,  and  tuned  it.  He  believed  that  he  really 
played  "  Rosin  the  Bow  "  on  it,  and  the  children  recog 
nized  the  song  when  he  sang  it.  Ann  went  cheerfully 
to  bed  after  sitting  up  rather  late,  in  talk  of  Felix 
and  Jessamy  coming  early  in  the  spring.  The  chil 
dren's  spirits  had  been  damped  a  little  by  hearing  that 
the  mill  would  not  make  ruled  writing-paper  at  first, 
but  only  yellow  wrapping-paper;  their  father  assured 
them  that  the  wrapping-paper  would  be  such  as  could 
be  used  for  kites.  He  pretended  to  chase  them  up 
stairs  to  bed,  and  they  had  fun  calling  down  through 
the  latticework  of  the  walls  to  Rosy,  where  she  was 
washing  the  belated  supper  dishes  in  the  kitchen. 

Rosy  slept  in  a  little  room  lathed  off  from  the  kitchen 
on  an  entry  leading  to  the  back  door;  and  the  room  of 
the  Powells  was  on  the  same  floor  beside  the  front  hall. 
Sometime  after  midnight  Ann  woke  from  a  dream  of 
Felix,  and  he  seemed  to  be  dying.  Jessamy  was  cry 
ing  over  him,  and  a  strange  voice  sounded  through  the 
room  which  in  her  breaking  dream  Ann  thought  was 
the  voice  of  death.  She  started  fully  awake,  and  sat 
up  in  her  bed  to  listen,  while  Powell  slept  on. 

The  crying  continued;  now  Ann  knew  that  it  was 
Rosy  crying  in  the  kitchen,  and  the  voice  continued, 
low,  coarse,  and  wheedling.  It  coaxed  Rosy,  and  an 
swered  what  seemed  her  bursts  of  protest. 

The  girl  stopped  her  sobbing  and  wailed  out :  "  Oh, 
mother,  mother,  mother !  He'd  never  marry  me  in  the 

world!" 

118 


NEW    LEAF    MILLS 

The  voice  did  not  reply  at  once,  then  it  said  low, 
coarse,  and  wheedling,  but  clear,  "  Well,  honey  ?" 

A  cry  of  grief  came  from  the  girl,  and  there  was  a 
rush  as  of  steps  and  a  sound  as  of  a  door  flung  open. 

Ann  jumped  from  her  bed  and  ran  to  the  kitchen. 
Beside  the  table,  dim  in  the  light  of  the  dying  fire  of 
the  stove-front,  the  shapeless  bulk  of  a  woman  rose  at 
Ann's  coming  and  stood  holding  a  bundle  as  of  clothes. 
Ann  understood. 

"  You  worthless,  good  -  for  -  nothing,  drunken  old 
thing !"  she  shuddered  at  the  apparition.  "  Go  out 
of  my  house  this  minute!" 

The  woman  did  not  speak,  but  stumbled  through  the 
door  that  Eosy  had  left  open  into  the  night.  The  dark 
gave  no  answer  back  to  Ann  as  she  called,  at  first 
softly  and  then  loudly  and  imploringly,  "  Rosy,  Rosy ! 
Rosy,  child!" 


XX 


THE  candle  which  Ann  lighted  showed  Rosy's  sun- 
bonnet  hanging  on  its  nail  beside  the  door,  and  she 
went  again  and  again  to  the  outer  steps  and  held  the 
candle  at  her  forehead  and  peered  into  the  warm,  wind 
less  dark.  The  rays  which  streamed  to  the  border  of 
the  woods  on  the  hill  slope  showed  nothing,  and  Ann 
waited  more  and  more  hopelessly  for  the  girl's  return. 
Neither  her  figure  stealing  back  barefooted  nor  her 
mother's  bulk  lurking  in  the  shadows  denned  itself  in 
the  vague  shapes  which  Ann  conjured  out  of  the  trees 
and  bushes.  At  last  she  went  and  wakened  Powell, 
and  they  watched  together  till  the  daylight  dimmed  the 
candle-light. 

Then  she  set  about  getting  breakfast  at  the  fire  which 
they  had  kept  going  in  the  stove;  the  children  woke, 
and  the  miller  crossed  from  the  mill,  and  the  life  of 
the  household,  broken  in  its  course,  began  to  make  its 
way  again  over  the  interruption.  It  seemed  every  mo 
ment  as  if  the  girl  must  come  back ;  all  things  were  still 
so  perfectly  part  of  her  presence  that  her  absence  was 
more  and  more  incredible.  Powell  went  away  to  vote 
at  Spring  Grove,  and  that  was  a  relief  to  Ann,  as  if 
while  he  was  gone  Rosy  would  have  more  courage  to 
return ;  she  could  not  explain  to  the  younger  children ; 
to  Richard  she  could  be  clearer,  and  that  was  a  comfort ; 
and  she  could  make  him  tell  the  others  that  Rosy  had 
gone  off  in  the  night,  but  she  expected  her  any  time; 
the  Dreamer  knew  of  something  tragical  without  the 

120 


NEW    LEAF    MILLS 

telling.  Now  and  then  Ann  drowsed  and  had  swift, 
long  dreams  which  she  woke  from  to  the  fancied  sound 
of  Rosy's  singing  and  her  steps  on  the  kitchen  floor,  or 
her  calling  to  the  chickens  at  the  back  porch. 

Powell  came  home  in  the  late  afternoon,  and  she  had 
to  bear  his  disappointment  that  Rosy  should  be  still 
away.  He  reported  a  very  light  vote  at  the  polls ;  what 
really  interested  Ann  at  all  was  the  fact  that  Bickler 
was  running  behind  the  ticket.  The  next  morning  news 
came  by  the  first  passer  at  the  mill  that  the  rest  of  the 
Whig  ticket  had  been  elected,  but  Bickler  had  been 
defeated.  The  rumor  of  Rosy's  absence  had  gone 
through  the  neighborhood  the  day  before,  though  Ann 
had  tried  to  keep  it  quiet.  The  miller  must  have  told 
it,  for  she  saw  some  of  the  farmers  who  had  stopped 
at  the  mill  on  their  way  from  the  polls  looking  harder 
at  the  house  than  usual  as  they  drove  by.  She  did  not 
care  to  blame  the  miller  for  it,  and  when  some  of  the 
farm  wives  came  the  next  morning  to  verify  the  rumor 
she  confirmed  it.  She  did  not  try  to  explain  the  fact, 
but  her  heart  stood  still  when  the  first  of  her  visitors 
offered  to  bet  that  Captain  Bickler  could  tell  where 
Rosy  was. 

The  fear  which  she  thought  had  been  kept  to  Powell 
and  herself  she  found  was  the  common  suspicion;  the 
women  who  now  talked  of  it  to  her  were  bitter  against 
Bickler;  they  said  he  ought  to  be  cowhided,  that  Mr. 
Powell  ought  to  cowhide  the  truth  out  of  him;  there 
was  blame  for  Rosy  too  on  their  tongues,  but  nothing 
like  their  blame  for  Bickler.  His  defeat  at  the  polls 
was  a  judgment  on  him,  but  they  did  not  believe  that 
was  the  end  of  it.  Ann  alone  seemed  to  know  of  the 
mother's  presence,  with  its  sinister  implications,  and 
she  could  at  least  keep  that  to  herself. 

The  neighborhood  talk  grew  as  each  day  went  by; 

121 


NEW    LEAF    MILLS 

it  spread  to  the  children,  and  at  the  log  schoolhouse 
two  miles  away  the  little  Powells  were  asked  if  Rosy 
had  come  back  or  if  they  had  heard  from  her.  Ann 
silenced  her  own  belief,  but  she  could  not  silence  the 
belief  of  others.  It  began  to  be  said  that  Rosy  had 
drowned  herself,  and  it  began  to  be  said  that  Owen 
Powell  ought  to  have  the  dam  and  the  head-race 
dragged.  The  general  gossip  knit  Rosy's  name  closer 
and  closer  with  Bickler's,  and  from  the  depths  of  Ann's 
remembrance  of  the  girl's  cry  and  the  mother's  answer 
by  night  there  was  proof  which  even  the  optimism  of 
Powell  could  not  always  resist.  She  urged  no  duty  in 
the  matter  upon  him;  she  could  trust  him  for  Ms  duty 
as  he  saw  it;  but  they  were  both  in  doubt  of  what  his 
duty  would  be. 

If  it  was  to  summon  Bickler  and  demand  the  truth 
of  him,  Powell  was  saved  that  extreme  of  action,  so 
alien  to  his  temperament,  by  Bickler's  coming  to  him 
unsummoned  after  the  third  day  had  gone  by.  He 
seemed  to  have  timed  his  coming  to  the  hour  when  the 
children  were  away  playing  on  the  other  side  of  the 
hill,  and  he  rode  up  to  the  back  door  of  the  new  house 
and  called  softly  to  Ann  in  the  kitchen.  "  Mrs.  Powell, 
Mrs.  Powell!"' 

Ann  looked  out,  dumb  with  abhorrence  and  then  with 
pity  of  the  man.  His  face  was  as  if  drenched  from 
tears,  and  as  she  stared  at  him  they  began  to  stream 
afresh.  He  choked  down  the  sobs  to  say,  "  I  want  to 
speak  to  you  and  Mr.  Powell." 

"  I'll  tell  my  husband,"  Ann  said,  with  more  severity 
than  she  felt ;  and  she  called  Owen  from  the  front  room, 
where  he  was  arranging  the  volumes  of  the  Heavenly 
Arcana  and  some  Collateral  Works  on  a  shelf  with  some 
other  books;  he  had  not  thought  Pope's  Homer  and 

Byron's  poems  unfit  for  their  company. 

122 


NEW    LEAF    MILLS 

"  Well,  well  1"  lie  answered  so  dreamily  that  she 
doubted  if  he  realized  who  it  was  wanted  to  speak  to 
him.  He  came  to  the  back  door  in  his  shirt-sleeves 
and  stood  in  the  soft  October  air,  silent  and  waiting  for 
Bickler  to  speak. 

Bickler  had  dismounted  and  dropped  the  bridle  on 
his  horse's  neck;  it  was  cropping  the  grass  at  his  feet. 

"  You  know  why  I've  come,  Mr.  Powell.  Have  you 
found  out  where  she's  gone  yet?" 

"  I  didn't  know  but  you  might  tell  us,  Captain 
Bickler." 

"  Mr.  Powell,  you're  a  good  man,  about  the  best  man 
I  ever  saw,  and  I  want  you  to  believe  me  just  as  if  I 
was  saying  it  before  the  Judgment  Seat.  I  don't  know 
any  more  than  you  do  where  K-osy  Hefmyer  is.  I 
fooled  with  her,  and  I  can't  say  I  didn't  mean  her  any 
harm,  but  for  all  the  harm  I  ever  did  her  she  was  like 
the  babe  unborn.  I  knew  her  mother  was  hunting  for 
her,  and  I  told  her  where  Rosy  was." 

At  the  confession  of  this  atrocity  Powell's  heart, 
which  had  begun  to  soften  in  pity  of  the  wretched 
man,  hardened  again.  "  Bickler,"  he  said,  dropping 
any  formal  address,  "  it  isn't  merely  the  wrong  we  do 
that  we're  guilty  of— 

"  I  know  it,  I  know  it !"  the  miserable  man  wailed 
out.  "  Don't  I  know  it,  don't  I  think  it,  don't  I  feel 
it  night  and  day,  every  minute,  every  second  ?" 

The  Doctrinal  truth  was  precious  to  Powell,  and  he 
felt  bound  to  retract  what  he  had  just  said.  He  recog 
nized  that  it  was  a  Puritanic  contravention  of  the  ~New 
Church  precept  teaching  that  there  are  degrees  in  sin, 
that  all  sinning  is  not  of  one  quantity  of  wickedness. 
"  I  don't  mean,"  he  said,  "  that  you  are  as  guiltless  of 
what  you  meant  as  if  you  had  not  meant  it;  in  the 
nature  of  things  you  must  now  suffer  the  same  as  if 

9  123 


NEW    LEAF    MILLS 

you  had  done  it,  and  I  couldn't  lessen  your  suffering  if 
I  wished." 

"  I  don't  want  you  to,  Mr.  Powell ;  and  if  you  don't 
believe  what  I  tell  you  I  want  you  to  take  this  and  lay 
it  onto  me  for  all  you're  worth." 

He  held  out  the  cowhide  which  he  carried  for  his 
whip.  Powell  remembered  how  for  far  less  he  had  said 
that  Bickler  ought  to  be  cowhided;  with  the  culprit 
before  him  it  was  a  different  thing.  "  Throw  it  away !" 
he  said  with  loathing,  as  if  the  cowhide  were  a  snake. 
"  You  won't  have  your  punishment  at  my  hands,  if 
you've  counted  on  that.  We  think  Rosy  may  be  dead. 
She  ran  away,  we  don't  know  where,  in  the  dark;  she 
probably  didn't  know,  either ;  the  poor  wild  thing  may 
have  fallen  into  the  river,  or  the  head-race,  and  been 
drowned.  We  are  going  to  drag  them,  and  if  you  choose 
to  come  and  help — ' 

Ann  had  been  listening  within,  and  now  she  came  to 
the  door.  "  What  are  you  thinking  of,  Owen  ?  He 
shall  not  come !  I  wouldn't  let  him  help  find  that  dead 
child  to  save  his  own  life." 

She  went  further  than  she  meant,  and  she  was  not 
proof  against  the  man's  prayer.  "  Oh,  do  let  me  come, 
Mrs.  Powell!  I  won't  make  any  trouble.  I  don't  be 
lieve  she's  drowned,  but  if  she  is  it's  for  me  more  than 
anybody  else  to  find  her.  I  wouldn't  ask  it  to  save  my 
own  life.  What  do  I  care  for  my  life  now  ?  I'm  done 
for.  I  can't  hold  up  my  head  in  this  neighborhood 
again.  All  I  want  now  is  to  show  people  how  I  feel 
about  it." 

"  Yes,  to  show  people,  that's  what  you  want,"  she 
said,  with  a  cruelty  which  caused  the  relenting  Owen 
to  murmur,  "  Ann !"  "  Well,  you  won't  come  with  my 
leave,"  she  ended,  lamely. 

"  No,  I  don't  ask  any  one's  leave,"  Bickler  said,  with 

124 


NEW    LEAF    MILLS 

fallen  head.  "  All  I  want  is  just  to  come."  He  pleaded 
with  pitiful  repetition;  Ann  went  indoors  again;  and 
at  last  Owen,  worn  out  by  his  reasons  and  entreaties, 
said: 

"  If  we  hear  nothing  of  her,  we  are  going  to  drag 
the  dam  to-morrow  morning."  Then  he  turned  away 
too,  without  other  forms  of  parting,  and  Bidder  thanked 
him  haggardly  and  mounted  his  horse  and  rode  off. 

The  neighbors  came  early  with  a  seine.  It  was  a 
long  net  with  wide  meshes,  which  they  used  for  the 
larger  fish  whenever  Powell  invited  them  to  the  frolic 
of  dragging  the  clam.  "  I  reckon  that  '11  hold  her," 
one  of  them  said,  as  he  tested  the  strength  of  the  twine 
with  a  pull. 

They  had  shut  the  head-gates  of  the  race,  which  they 
were  to  drain  later  if  necessary,  and  now  they  set 
about  dragging  the  waters  of  the  dam  in  two  parties, 
one  in  the  flatboat  which  Powell  kept  there  and  one 
in  the  skiff  which  they  had  carried  up  from  the  river 
below.  Bickler  had  promised  to  be  there  among  the 
first,  but  Powell  thought  it  quite  like  the  man  that  he 
was  not  to  be  seen.  He  himself  directed  the  course  of 
the  flatboat,  close  to  the  shore,  and  at  a  point  where 
some  bushes  overhung  it  Bickler  parted  them  and 
jumped  aboard.  No  one  spoke  to  him,  but  at  his  ap 
pearance  there  was  a  sensation  in  the  men  poling  the 
heavy  boat,  as  Powell  bade  them,  in  the  low  tones  to 
which  they  dropped  their  voices  with  his.  Bickler  took 
his  place  at  the  bow  and  stooped  over  the  still  water 
with  eyes  that  seemed  to  pierce  its  depths. 

There  was  no  wind,  and  the  slow  ripple  of  the  flat- 
boat  as  it  advanced  scarcely  broke  the  oily  surface. 
From  time  to  time  a  red  or  yellow  leaf  dropped  from 
an  overhanging  tree  and  made  a  faint  circle  in  it.  At 
the  seine's  length  away  to  the  larboard  the  skiff  kept 

125 


NEW    LEAF    MILLS 

even  with  the  flatboat.  When  something  caught  the 
net  below  the  waters,  which  had  been  lowered  by  open 
ing  the  sluice  in  the  dam,  one  of  the  men  would  say, 
"  What's  that  ?"  Then  the  course  of  the  boats  would  be 
arrested  till  the  net  was  carefully  lifted  and  a  decay 
ing  branch  or  sodden  log  released  from  it  and  thrown 
ashore.  At  such  times  Bickler  would  shrink  back  from 
where  he  knelt,  or  hold  himself  unmoved,  with  hands 
clenching  the  gunwale.  When  fish  were  brought  up 
they  were  thrown  back,  not  without  mute  appeals  from 
the  men  which  Powell  denied,  or  protests  from  the 
boys  on  either  shore  who  followed  the  course  of  the 
boats  and  saw  the  bass  and  mudcats  and  pickerel  waste- 
fully  returned  to  their  haunts  among  the  roots  holding 
the  projecting  banks  together,  or  in  the  mats  of  withered 
iris  along  the  shore* 

The  search  went  on  for  hours  until  the  whole  of  the 
dam  was  dragged ;  then  there  had  begun  to  be  murmurs 
of  impatience  among  the  crews  which  Powell  could  not 
check.  In  fact,  the  event  had  been  losing  reality  for 
him,  and  he  was  glad  to  be  able  to  say  at  last :  "  Well, 
we  might  as  well  stop.  There's  no  use.  Now  we  will 
try  the  head-race."  With  the  authority  which  would 
not  have  been  conceded  to  him  at  other  times  he  led 
the  crowd  of  men,  with  its  border  of  dogs  and  boys, 
down  the  banks  of  the  race  to  the  flood-gates  below 
the  sluice  of  the  sawmill.  In  his  progress  he  was  aware 
of  Bickler  keeping  close  at  his  side,  as  if  in  terror  of 
himself,  and  as  the  waters  began  their  sheeted  spurt 
from  the  opening  valves  of  the  gates  he  felt  the  man 
at  his  elbow. 

Powell  himself  believed  that  the  girPs  body,  if  she 
were  drowned,  might  more  probably  be  found  in  the 
race,  which  could,  at  any  rate,  be  effectually  searched; 

he  seemed  to  draw  breath  in  the  wretch  beside  him 
*  126 


NEW    LEAF    MILLS 

and  to  watch  with  his  vision  for  what  the  waters  should 
reveal.  He  wanted  to  say  to  Bickler,  whose  gasping 
peculiarly  molested  him,  to  go  away,  but  in  pity  he 
could  not,  and  he  was  sensible  of  their  calming  their 
respiration  together  as  the  spurt  from  the  gates  grew 
weaker  and  lower  without  discovering  what  they  mutu 
ally  dreaded.  With  a  sort  of  nether  sense  he  perceived 
that  Overdale  had  added  himself  to  the  crowd,  and 
with  bandaged  head  and  one  arm  still  in  a  sling  was 
now  appearing  for  the  first  time  out-of-doors.  ~No  one 
noticed  him,  as  if  in  the  greater  interest  no  one  felt  any 
strangeness  in  his  presence. 

At  last  the  race  was  drained  and  the  gates  set  wide. 
There  was  nothing  but  a  heap  of  fish  flapping  and 
floundering  in  the  scattered  puddles  left  by  the  waste. 

"Oh,  blessed  be  God  Almighty !"  Powell  heard 
Bickler  groan  out  at  his  shoulder  and  then  give  a 
screech  of  terror  and  make  a  choking  sound. 

"  Don't  you  be  too  sure  o'  God  Almighty !"  Overdale 
was  shouting,  and  Powell  saw  him  with  his  sound  arm 
outstretched,  as  if  he  had  leaped  the  pool  that  parted 
them;  his  hand  was  at  Bickler's  throat,  pushing  him 
backward  and  making  his  head  shake  from  side  to  side. 
"  If  Owen  Powell,  here,  '11  say  the  word  I'll  shake  the 
life  out  of  you !" 

"  What  do  you  mean  ?"  Powell  shouted.  "  Let  the 
man  alone !  Don't  any  one  touch  him !"  He  turned  to 
the  others,  for  they  seemed  to  be  preparing  for  a  rush 
upon  Bickler.  "  He's  coming  with  me !  Till  there's 
something  proved  against  him  he's  as  innocent  as  any 
of  you." 

Some  such  disappointment  as  dumbly  shows  in  a 
dog's  eyes  when  he  is  made  to  release  his  prey,  and 
something  of  a  man's  amaze  at  an  unimaginable  dif 
ference  of  opinion,  was  visible  in  Overdale ;  but  he  did 

127 


NEW    LEAF    MILLS 

as  he  was  bid,  and  stood  a  little  off  so  that  Powell  could 
put  himself  before  Bickler  and  take,  much  against  the 
grain,  the  wretch's  elbow  in  his  hand  and  lead  him 
away  toward  the  new  house.  He  turned  and  called 
back  to  the  crowd :  "  There's  no  reason  why  you 
shouldn't  have  the  fish  now  " ;  and  this,  if  anything  of 
the  kind  were  needed,  operated  a  diversion,  and  Bickler 
continued  safe  in  his  keeping. 


XXI 

"  YES,  Ann,"  Powell  said  that  night,  after  the  chil 
dren  had  gone  to  sleep,  "  you  gave  him  shelter,  I  don't 
deny,  but  can  you  say  you  gave  him  welcome  ?" 

"  I  had  no  welcome  to  give  him,  and  I  don't  pretend 
that  I  had.  All  that  I  wanted  after  he  got  into  the 
house  was  to  get  him  safely  out  of  it.  I  hate  the  sight 
of  him,  and  I  shouldn't  have  been  sorry  if  the  crowd 
had  seen  him  going." 

"  Oh  yes,  you  would,  Ann.  But  the  fish  looked  after 
that.  If  it  hadn't  been  for  the  fish,  I  doubt  if  your 
vigilance  would  have  been  enough  to  smuggle  him 
through  the  back  door  and  start  him  off  to  Spring  Grove. 
But  seriously,  my  dear,  I  think  Bickler  has  behaved 
very  well,  considering  the  mischief  he  has  made  with 
out  meaning  the  whole  of  it.  He  certainly  seems  truly 
repentant." 

"  I  don't  care  for  his  repentance.  All  the  repenting 
in  the  world  won't  bring  poor  Eosy  back,"  Ann  said, 
with  passionate  pity  for  the  girl. 

"  Well,  perhaps  she  will  come  back  of  herself," 
Powell  hopefully  suggested. 

"  No,  she  never  will  come  back.  I  just  know  her 
dreadful  old  mother  has  got  her  somewhere,  and  that's 
the  end  of  Rosy." 

In  the  morning  it  seemed  as  if  Eosy  might  have 
stolen  back.  Her  sunbonnet  hung  on  its  nail  behind 
the  kitchen  door,  and  her  shabby  little  shoes,  side- 

129 


NEW    LEAF    MILLS 

worn  at  the  heels,  stood  on  the  floor  beneath  it;  but  the 
day  went  by,  and  the  days  after  that,  and  no  Rosy  re 
turned  to  wear  the  bonnet  and  the  shoes.  Her  poor 
best  dress  clung  to  the  wall  beside  her  bed  in  that 
mocking  facsimile  of  the  wearer  which  clothes  have  the 
trick  of,  and  in  her  bureau  drawer,  among  her  ribbons 
and  collars,  Ann  found  the  brooch  which  Bickler  had 
given  her. 

"  He  must  have  made  her  take  it  again,"  Ann  said 
to  her  husband.  "  There  is  no  telling  how  often  the 
miserable  scamp  saw  her  or  how  he  kept  her  from  let 
ting  us  know.  We  shall  never  have  the  truth  from 
him." 

It  was  PowelFs  belief,  as  the  days  and  weeks  went 
by,  that  they  not  only  had  the  truth,  but  more  than  the 
truth  from  Bickler.  He  came  almost  daily,  or,  rather, 
nightly,  to  confess  the  wrong  he  had  done  and  to  repeat 
his  repentance  with  some  increasing  form  of  self- 
accusal.  He  owned  that  he  had  made  the  girl  take 
back  the  brooch  and  keep  it  a  secret  from  Mrs.  Powell, 
and  he  exaggerated  his  guilt  in  the  matter  in  order  to 
extract  the  comfort  from  Powell  which  Powell  more 
and  more  unwillingly  ministered.  He  began  escaping 
Bickler  and  leaving  him  to  Ann,  who  healed  his  wounds 
by  unsparing  cautery  rather  than  such  medicament  as 
Powell's  philosophic  compassion  supplied.  The  two, 
as  they  sat  together  in  the  kitchen,  still  haunted  by  the 
vanished  presence  of  the  girl,  heard  Powell  tuning  his 
harp,  or  striking  it  untuned,  in  the  remotest  front  of  the 
house,  and  singing  to  it  some  of  the  Scotch  songs  so  alien 
to  its  Welsh  nature.  It  tired  Ann,  too,  having  the  man 
dwell  upon  his  vain  despair,  his  vain  hope  of  finding 
Rosy ;  yet  if  he  left  these  a  moment  with  some  hapless 
remark  upon  the  minstrelsy  she  brought  him  pitilessly 

back  and  suffered  on  with  him. 

130 


NEW    LEAF    MILLS 

He  still  wore  the  fashionable  clothes  in  which  she 
had  first  seen  him,  for  he  had  no  others ;  but  he  seemed 
to  have  shrunk  in  them,  and  they  hung  about  him  in 
the  neglect  which  they  shared  with  his  unshaven  beard 
and  unoiled  hair.  The  splendor  of  his  electioneering 
days  was  far  from  him;  he  remained  visibly  in  the 
shame  of  his  defeat  at  the  polls.  He  rode  up  to  the 
back  of  the  house,  and  entered  at  the  kitchen  door  with 
boots  spattered  from  the  mud  of  the  country  road.  "  I 
always  think,"  he  would  say,  "  that  I'm  going  to  find 
her  here  when  you  open  the  door.  I  reckon  you  haven't 
heard  anything  yet  ?" 

"  Not  yet,  Bickler,"  Powell  would  answer,  kindly, 
"  but  I  don't  give  up  the  hope  of  doing  so,"  and  then 
the  wretched  man  would  begin  with  the  tale  of  his 
suffering  and  with  his  self-accusal  mixed  with  self-pity. 

"  I  don't  seem  to  care  for  eating  any  more,  and  I 
wake  half  a  dozen  times  in  the  night.  I  always  dream 
that  she  has  come  back,  and  as  I  get  along  nearer  to 
your  house  I  bet  myself  she  won't  be  here.  God's  my 
judge,  how  glad  I'd  be  to  lose  once." 

Powell  could  not  forbear  a  smile.  "  Well,  perhaps 
you  will  yet." 

"  Mighty  little  chance,  I  reckon.  Now,  Mr.  Powell, 
I'd  like  to  go  the  case  all  over ;  go  through  it  like  as  if 
it  was  in  court." 

"  Well,  Bickler,  you've  done  that  already,  you  know." 

"  But  some  points  have  come  up  in  my  mind.  Still, 
I  won't  to-night.  There's  one  thing,  though,  I  wanted 
to  speak  about.  Do  you  think  it  would  do  any  good 
if  I  was  to  go  into  church,  some  church,  and  own  up 
before  everybody  just  how  it  was  ?" 

"  I  doubt  it,  Bickler.  Doesn't  everybody  know  the 
worst  already?" 

"  Ah,  they  know  more  than  the  worst !     They  don't 

131 


NEW    LEAF    MILLS 

know  the  best^  bad  as  it  is.  I  believe  if  it  could  be 
understood  once —  But  what  do  I  care  what  they 
think?  It's  what  /  think  myself  that  I  care  for.  Do 
you  suppose  that  if  I  made  public  confession  it  would 
help  me  to  get  the  Lord's  forgiveness  ?  I  shouldn't  care 
whether  it  made  them  take  after  me,  and  tar  and  feather 
me,  and  ride  me  out  of  the  county  on  a  rail,  if  it  would 
only  help  me  to  get  a  little  peace  of  mind.  But  nothing 
will  do  it,  and  that's  a  sign  that  the  Lord  isn't  going 
to  forgive  me.  Oh  my,  oh  my,  oh  my !" 

They  had  talked  again  and  again  to  this  point,  and 
again  and  again  Powell  had  assured  the  sinner  that 
if  he  owned  his  sin  to  himself  he  had  disowned  it,  and 
that  this  renunciation  made  before  himself  and  his  wife 
was  morally  as  effective  as  if  made  before  the  whole 
community. 

"  But  what  I  want  is  punishment,,  something  to  take 
it  out  of  me,"  and  it  was  at  this  point  that  the  notion 
of  relaxing  him  to  the  secular  arm  in  the  person  of  Mrs. 
Powell  first  occurred  to  her  husband.  lie  did  not  at 
once  act  upon  it,  but  it  finally  formed  his  justification 
in  summoning  Ann  to  the  conference,  and  when  once 
the  appeal  had  been  made  to  her  as  a  point  for  ad 
judication,  retiring  himself  from  the  case  and  leaving 
it  wholly  to  her. 

She  found  at  first  a  certain  satisfaction  in  bringing 
his  potential  guilt  before  the  wretched  man,  though  in 
his  collapse  she  could  not  always  recognize  him  for  the 
miscreant  she  theorized  him,  but  at  times  felt  as  if  he 
were  some  miserable  boy,  whose  fault  had  found  him 
out  in  worse  guilt  than  it  necessarily  implied.  From 
the  pathos  of  this  she  had  to  recall  herself  to  the  ab 
horrence  of  his  betrayal  of  Rosy  to  her  mother;  that 
was  his  greater  guilt. 

"  There  is  one  thing  you  can  do,  Mr.  Bickler,"  she 

132 


NEW    LEAF    MILLS 

said  at  last,  "  and  that  is  to  look  up  that  wicked  old 
mother  of  hers." 

"  What  good  would  that  do  ?"  Bickler  gasped,  in  the 
reluctance  which  he  had  for  putting  his  remorse  to  a 
practical  proof;  it  was  much  easier  to  suffer  shame  at 
the  hands  of  the  Powells  than  take  some  action  that 
would  entail  the  public  consequences  which  he  had 
professed  himself  so  eager  to  meet. 

"  It  would  do  the  good  that  nothing  else  would.  It 
would  be  the  way  of  finding  Rosy,  if  she  is  still  alive. 
Her  mother  knows,  if  anybody.  If  you  can't  find  her 
mother,  you  can  find  that  cousin  of  hers  that  cooks 
on  the  canal-boat.  She  could  tell  you  where  Rosy's 
mother  is,  at  any  rate.  But  why  do  you  make  me  tell 
you  all  this?  You  are  a  lawyer  and  you  know  how 
to  act." 

Bickler  answered,  vaguely :  "  It's  like  as  if  I  couldn't 
move.  I  can  come  here  and  talk  with  you,  because  you 
know  about  it,  but  it  doesn't  seem  as  if  I  could  speak  to 
anybody  else." 

"  Well,  then,  I  can  tell  you  that's  very  cowardly, 
and  if  you  are  as  sorry  as  you  pretend  to  be  you'll  over 
come  it  and  do  the  only  thing  that's  left  for  you  to  do." 

"  I'm  afraid,  I'm  afraid ;  I  don't  deny  it.  I  can't 
bear  to  speak  her  name  anywhere,  or  to  ask  anybody, 
for  fear  I'll  find  out  that  she's  dead,  or  worse  than 
dead." 

"  Then  don't  come  here  any  more,  Mr.  Bickler,  for 
I  won't  stand  it.  You  pretend  to  be  sorry  and  to  want 
punishment,  and  you  shirk  it  in  the  only  shape  you  can 
get  it."  Ann  rose.  "  Now  I  want  you  to  go  and  not 
come  back  unless  you  come  to  tell  me  that  you've  been 
to  look  for  Rosy's  mother  and  cousin." 

Bickler  got  up  perforce  from  the  chair  he  was  sunk 
in,  and  turned  his  cap  on  one  hand  with  the  other;  he 

133 


I 


NEW    LEAF    MILLS 

now  always  wore  it  pulled  over  his  eyes  and  no  longer 
jauntily  slouched  on  one  ear  when  he  made  his  appear 
ance  at  the  back  door.  "  Don't  you  think  we  had  better 
talk  it  over  with  Mr.  Powell  ?" 

"  ~No,  I  don't.  And  if  you  want  to  know,  Mr.  Powell 
is  sick  and  tired  of  your  coming  here,  and  he'll  never 
want  to  see  you  again  unless  you've  really  got  some 
thing  to  tell." 

"  That  was  rather  severe,  Ann,"  Powell  said  when 
she  repeated  the  fact  to  him.  He  looked  down  thought 
fully  while  she  stared  indignantly  at  him.  "  I  am  sick 
and  tired  of  him.  I  realize  that  his  repentance  has 
worn  out  my  patience.  But  it's  dreadful,  isn't  it, 
that  the  remorse  of  a  man  should  bore  his  fellow- 
creature  ?" 

Ann  was  unable  to  enter  into  the  psychological  in 
quiry.  "  I  don't  know  anything  about  that,  Owen,  and 
I  don't  care.  It's  nearly  enough,  your  taking  it  that 
way,  to  make  me  feel  that  there's  a  pair  of  you — that 
you're  as  bad  as  he  is." 

Powell  laughed  now  with  a  humorous  sense  of  her 
excess.  "  Well,  I  hadn't  any  part  in  driving  poor  Rosy 
away,  exactly." 

"  Perhaps  you  had.  If  you'd  made  him  take  his 
brooch  back  at  once,  or  let  me  make  him,  it  might  never 
have  come  to  his  driving  her  away." 

This  brought  Powell's  guilt  home  to  him.  "  Ann," 
he  said,  solemnly.  "  you  are  right.  I  am  to  blame  al 
most  as  much  as  Bickler  himself.  But  it  was  mere  for- 
getfulness — 

"  Forgetfulness  may  be  a  sin,  too." 

Powell  waived  the  point  at  least  for  the  time  being. 
"  And  what  did  he  say  when  you  told  him  I  didn't  want 
to  see  him  or  wouldn't  ?" 

134 


NEW    LEAF    MILLS 

"  He  didn't  say  anything.  Just  went.  What  else 
could  he  do  ?" 

"  Nothing,  I  suppose.    But  it  seems  rather  hard." 

The  tears  of  vexation  came  into  Ann's  eyes. 
"  Owen/'  she  said,  "  if  I  didn't  know  how  good  you 
were,  I  should  say  you  were  the  cruelest  man  in  the 
world.  And  as  it  is,  I  will  say  you  are  the  most  try- 
ing." 

"  Oh,  my  dear  girl,  I  know  I  am  trying,  and  I  am 
sorry  for  it.  You  have  done  just  exactly  right  with  the 
fellow,  and  from  this  out  I  will  take  him  in  hand  my 
self.  I  realize  that  I  have  been  shirking  him,  and  I 
assure  you  that  I  have  been  ashamed  of  myself  for 
doing  so.  I  ought  to  have  borne  with  him  to  the  bitter 
end,  and  the  least  reparation  I  can  make  him  is  to 
stand  his  remorse  from  now  on." 

Bickler  did  not  come  the  next  night  or  the  next,  and 
then  the  third  night  Powell  was  true  to  his  word  and 
received  him,  though  in  illustration  of  her  own  regret 
for  forcing  the  distasteful  office  upon  him  Ann  pres 
ently  joined  them  both.  Perhaps  a  certain  impatience 
for  his  report  mixed  with  her  compassion. 

He  showed  a  haggard  face  at  the  door,  and  asked,  dry- 
tongued,  to  be  allowed  to  sit  down  a  moment  first.  He 
sat  without  offering  to  speak,  and  then  had  to  be 
prompted  by  Powell  with  a  "  Well  ?"  as  sharp  as  he 
could  make  it. 

"  Well  " — he  took  the  word  huskily  on  his  own  lips — 
"  I  didn't  see  her  mother.  I  found  the  canal-boat,  and 
I  saw  her  cousin.  Hosy — Rosy  has  gone  off  somewhere 
with  her  mother.  I've  been  in  Tuskingum  the  last 
three  days,  and  I've  searched  the  place  all  over — every 
where  that  I  was  afraid  she  would  be." 

He  began  to  cry  piteously,  to  sob  and  to  moan,  and 
to  rock  himself  backward  and  forward  in  his  chair. 

135 


NEW    LEAF    MILLS 

Ann  stared  at  him  silently,  but  the  sight  wrought 
upon  Powell  so  that  he  made  several  beginnings  of  con 
solation.  "  Oh,  well,  we  mustn't  give  up  all —  Cer 
tainly  they  can  be  found  somewhere  or  other —  There 
isn't  the  least  danger  but  what— 

Ann  stopped  him  with  a  distracted  cry  of  "Owen  I" 


XXII 

No  man  lives  well  into  the  forties,  as  Owen  Powell 
had  lived,  if  he  is  of  Owen  Powell's  philosophic  mind, 
without  realizing  that  it  is  not  a  misfortune  misfortunes 
come  not  single  spies.  He  perceives  that  he  borrows 
from  one  misfortune  strength  to  support  another,  and 
power  somehow  from  their  successive  help  to  turn  the 
day  against  them  all.  The  trouble  lingers  near,  but 
the  man  is  left  in  possession  of  the  field. 

It  had  often  seemed  to  Powell  that  his  life  at  New 
Leaf  Mills  had  been  a  series  of  large  and  little  tragedies 
which  were  none  the  less  tragic  because  they  were  also 
rather  squalidly  comic.  He  had  grieved  most  truly 
for  the  fate  of  the  unhappy  girl  who  was  like  a  child  in 
his  family,  and  he  had  fully  shared  his  wife's  anger 
with  the  means  by  which  the  offense  came.  His  anger 
passed  as  Bidder's  remorse  persisted,  and,  though  the 
remorse  bored  him  more  and  more,  he  could  not  refuse 
him  the  sympathy  the  man  did  not  merit ;  the  stress  of 
its  reason  remained.  The  girl  was  gone  in  mysterious 
silence  to  a  destiny  that  his  wife  and  he,  though  it 
harrowed  them  with  its  dreadful  possibility,  did  not 
explicitly  forecast,  but  left  in  the  silence  into  which 
Rosy  herself  had  vanished.  ^sTow  when  a  letter  came 
from  his  brother  James  at  Middleville  definitely  re 
nouncing  his  hope  of  joining  the  family  community  at 
the  mills,  Powell  found  a  sort  of  relief  in  thinking  of 

Rosy  and  her  intangible  disaster;  and  again  when  the 

137 


NEW    LEAF    MILLS 

new  miller  said  one  morning  that  he  had  made  up  his 
mind  not  to  stay  any  longer,  and  the  running  of  the 
mills  must  fall  into  the  unskilled  hands  of  himself  and 
Richard,  he  took  comfort  from  his  brother's  defection, 
and  could  at  least  join  Ann  in  refusing  to  blame  Jim 
and  Sally  for  not  wanting  to  come  to  such  a  hapless 
place. 

But  Ann's  real  stay  in  the  matter  was  her  faith  in 
the  coming  of  Felix  in  the  spring.  That  was  to  be 
atonement  for  all  injuries,  compensation  for  all  losses, 
and  it  seemed  to  her  that  it  was  by  the  direct  favor  of 
Hieaven  that  the  day  after  Jim's  letter  came  there 
should  be  one  from  Jessamy  reporting  a  great  increas 
ing  improvement  in  Felix,  so  great  that  she  was  now 
fully  sharing  his  never-failing  hopefulness.  The  letter 
had  been  a  week  making  its  slow  steamboat  journey 
up  the  Mississippi  and  the  Ohio,  but  Kim  was  not  im 
patient  with  that.  She  began  reading  it  aloud,  and 
then  she  stopped  her  reading  aloud  and  partly  reported 
its  tenor  to  Powell. 

"  Yes,  there  isn't  one  unfavorable  thing.  He's  made 
such  a  wonderful  gain  in  strength.  Cough  better;  he 
sleeps  better  than  he  ever  has.  His  appetite  has  in 
creased.  He  takes  walks  and  doesn't  get  so  tired.  They 
will  be  here  in  April  if  he  keeps  on  gaining.  And 
I  had  such  a  bad  dream  again  last  night  about  Felix! 
I  suppose  it  was  that  miserable  Bickler's  talking  about 
Rosy  and  thinking  she  was  dead.  I  hated  to  tell  you 
what  my  dream  was  this  morning,  and  now  I  needn't 
tell  you.  Let's  go  and  look  at  their  room.  We  ought 
to  get  it  plastered  right  away,  if  we  don't  the  others,  so 
that  it  will  be  good  and  dry  for  them." 

The  Powells  were  standing  on  the  sawn-off  piece  of 
sill  which  formed  their  provisional  doorstep,  and  Ann 

had  opened  and  read  her  letter  there.     As  they  turned 

138 


NEW    LEAF    MILLS 

to  go  in  she  caught  sight  over  her  shoulder  of  a  boy 
on  a  horse  splashing  through  the  tail-race  and  waving 
what  seemed  a  letter  in  his  hand  toward  them. 

"  Oh,  what  can  it  be,  Owen  V  she  implored. 

Powell  went  down  to  the  road  to  meet  the  boy.  "  It's 
a  telegraphic  despatch,"  he  called  to  her;  it  was  too 
early  in  the  history  of  telegraphing  to  call  the  thing  a 
telegram.  He  fumbled  in  his  pocket  for  money  to  pay 
the  boy,  and  Ann  suffered  at  the  door. 

"  Oh,  open  it,  open  it !"  she  lamented. 

Powell  opened  it  slowly  as  he  came  toward  her. 
Then,  standing  beside  her,  with  his  encouraging  smile 
still  on  his  face,  he  read  mechanically :  "  Felix  died 
last  night.  Coming  north  with  him.  Have  written. 
Jessamy." 

"  My  dream !"  Ann  said.  "  Oh,  poor  Jessamy !" 
And  then  she  looked  at  her  husband's  face,  and  she  said, 
"  Oh,  poor  Owen !"  She  knew  that  he  loved  Felix,  as 
in  large  families  the  eldest  is  apt  to  love  the  youngest, 
with  fatherly  affection. 

She  cried.  Owen  did  not  cry  with  tears,  but  he 
whimpered  like  a  child  controlling  itself. 

"  He  didn't  think,"  Ann  said,  finding  help  in  the 
detail,  "  when  he  sent  me  that  bag  of  coffee  that  he 
was  going  to  die  before  I  used  half  of  it.  Where  will 
she  have  the  funeral?  They  will  bring  him  to  Tusk- 
ingum.  We  must  be  there  to  meet  Jessamy." 

The  circumstances  of  their  sorrow  softened  their  sor 
row,  and  their  sorrow  softened  others  toward  them  a 
little.  The  new  miller  promised  he  would  stay  until 
they  could  get  somebody,  and  Owen  left  Richard  to 
look  after  the  younger  children  while  he  went  with 
their  mother  to  the  funeral. 

Ann  told  Richard  about  it  when  she  came  back. 
All  the  brothers  of  Felix  had  been  at  the  funeral,  but 
10  139 


NEW    LEAF    MILLS 

only  one  of  them  had  talked  as  if  he  would  come  to 
the  mills.  He  was  the  next  to  Owen  in  age,  and 
was  most  in  sympathy  with  him  religiously.  But 
he  had  not  been  able  to  wind  up  his  business,  as 
he  said,  and  he  was  uncertain  whether  he  could  sell 
out. 

"  If  he  comes  here,"  Richard's  mother  said  to  him, 
"  I  suppose  we  must  go,  and  if  he  doesn't  I  don't  know 
how  we  are  to  stay.  I  don't  believe  your  father  could 
make  enough  out  of  the  mills  to  keep  them  going; 
he's  only  got  along  with  your  poor  uncle's  help.  I'm 
sorry  for  your  poor  father  every  way ;  I  know  he  likes 
this  dreadful  place,  and  that  it  will  be  a  struggle  for 
him  to  go  out  into  the  world  again  and  find  something. 
You  must  help  him  all  you  can,  Richard." 

She  took  the  boy's  hand  and  smoothed  it  with  her 
own.  "  Oh,  surely  we  can  get  something,  mother^"  he 
said,  and  his  adventurous  spirit  fired  at  the  notion  of 
getting  it  by  some  miraculous  chance.  "  I  don't  believe 
it's  too  late  yet  for  us  to  go  to  California.  I  could  go 
ahead." 

"You  mustn't  think  of  that,  Dick,  dear.  But  you 
might  go  down  to  the  City  and  look  round.  You  have 
such  good  business  faculty.  I  have  been  thinking  about 
it  already,  for  we  must  settle  somewhere  or  have  the 
prospect  of  it  before  the  winter.  Your  father  has 
friends  among  the  New  Church  people  there,  and  you 
could  see  them  for  him." 

The  two  talked  the  chances  over,  and  took  more  and 
more  courage  from  their  talk.  Powell  was  out  look 
ing  after  the  pigs  and  hens;  he  had  almost  a  personal 
understanding  with  the  pigs  in  their  wildness  among 
the  fallen  leaves  on  the  hillside,  and  with  the  chickens 
in  their  home-loving  tameness  about  the  back  yard ;  his 
familiarity  always  made  it  difficult  to  part  with  them 

140 


NEW    LEAF    MILLS 

for  the  ends  that  pork  and  poultry  seem  appointed  to 
in  the  order  of  Providence ;  at  such  moments  he  owned 
that  he  was  inclined  to  a  vegetable  diet.  Now  he  came 
in  flushed  with  interest  in  certain  characters  among 
them,  and  already  so  cheered  from  his  contact  with 
nature  that  Ann  tried  to  hide  her  gloom  from  him ;  she 
knew  he  had  not  really  forgotten  his  brother,  and  that 
he  had  comforted  himself  from  supernature  as  well  as 
nature. 

"  You'll  be  wanting  supper,  Owen,"  she  said,  putting 
on  an  apron  over  her  dress,  "  and  I  reckon  the  children 
will,  too." 

"  Why,  yes,  I  suppose  I  will,  though  T  didn't  realize 
that  I  was  hungry.  I  declare,  I  never  saw  such  a  sun 
set.  It  blazed  through  the  trees  on  the  western  side 
of  the  hill  like  a  fire.  Do  you  know,"  he  added,  fallen- 
ly,  "that  I  wanted  to  tell  Felix  about  it.  Isn't  it 
strange?  But  perhaps  he  was  seeing  it  too  where 
he  is." 

Ann  could  not  say;  she  left  him  sitting  before  the 
hearth  in  the  latticed  bower  which  was  to  have  been 
their  parlor;  and  presently  the  cheerful  hiss  of  frying 
made  itself  heard  from  the  kitchen,  where  she  was  busy 
over  the  stove,  while  the  children  were  setting  the 
supper-table  in  the  other  latticed  bower  which  was  to 
have  been  the  dining-room. 

Richard  had  gone  to  get  some  apples  from  the  Bladen 
orchard,  where  the  Powells  were  always  welcome  with- 

t/ 

out  special  leave.  Lizzie  Bladen  was  there  picking 
mushrooms,  and  he  helped  her  fill  her  apron  with  them 
before  he  filled  his  own  hat  and  pockets  with  apples. 
They  did  not  talk  much;  only  a  few  shy  words.  She 
asked  him  if  his  father  and  mother  had  got  back  from 
the  funeral,  and  she  said  she  would  like  to  see  Tusk- 
ingum  again.  Dick  was  cautious  even  with  her,  and  he 

141 


; 


J° 


NEW    LEAF    MILLS 

said  he  believed  if  they  ever  left  the  mills  they  would 
go  to  the  City  to  live. 

She  said,  "  I  would  like  to  see  the  City  once,  but  I 
would  rather  live  in  Tuskingum." 

'  That's  because  we  are  more  used  to  it,  I  suppose," 
Richard  said.     When  he  remembered  on  the  way  home 
that  he  had  said  we,  it  seemed  as  if  he  had  been  rather 
bold.     After  supper  he  told  his  mother  what  Lizzie 
Bladen  had  said  about  Tuskingum,  and  she  answered, 
Indeed  she  would  rather  live  in  Tuskingum,  too,  but 
she  knew  there  was  no  chance  for  his  father  there ;  and 
they  spent  the  evening  planning  for  him  in  the  City, 
while  Powell  was  busy  looking  over  his  accounts  by  the 
,  parlor  fire.     He  ended  with  more  courage  in  the  possi 
bilities  of  the  mills  than  he  had  when  talking  it  over 
jwith  Ann  on  their  way  back  from  the  funeral.     He 
had  then  taken  the  burden  of  her  mood,  but  now  he 
rose  from  his  dejection.    There  was  no  longer  any  ques 
tion  of  turning  them  into  paper-mills  or  carrying  out 
the  scheme  of  a  semi-communal  settlement  at  New  Leaf. 
That  must  be  all  given  up,  and  Powell  gave  it  up  not 
without  a  pang  then  and  there,  though  he  must  often 
recur  to  it  regretfully  afterward.     What  seemed  prac 
ticable  was  some  arrangement  with  Overdale,  who  could 
contribute  his  experience  and  look  to  the  joint  profits 
of  the   concern   for  his   compensation,   while   Powell 
i  would  supply  the  capital  for  carrying  it  on.     He  did 
not  at  once  determine  where  the  capital  was  to  come 
from,  but  on  reflection  it  appeared  to  him  that  his 
brother  David,  whether  he  did  or  did  not  decide  to  take 
hold  actively  himself,  might  arrange  to  let  him  have 
something  to  keep  on  with. 

The  scheme  still  wore  so  hopeful  an  aspect  in  tlie 
'morning  that  he  approached  Overdale  confidently  with 
it.  He  could  not  help  believing  that  somehow  the  man's 

142 


NEW    LEAF    MILLS 

nature  should  'have  been  changed  by  his  experiences, 
and,  though  this  was  quite  as  unreasonable,  in  his  phi 
losophy,  as  the  saving  effect  of  a  death-bed  repentance, 
*  he  could  not  persuade  himself  that  Overdale  was  not 
cherishing  a  secret  amity  toward  him  and  would  not  be 
glad  to  show  himself  a  friend  if  occasion  offered,  espe 
cially  if  the  occasion  embraced  an  obvious  advantage. 
But  when  he  opened  the  matter  Overdale  bluntly  re 
fused,  not  quite  with  his  old  savagery,  but  still  gruffly 
and  finally.  He  said  that  he  was  going  away  from 
New  Leaf  as  soon  as  he  could  get  away.  He  was  going 
to  sell  his  stock  and  furniture  at  vendue,  and  stay  with 
his  wife's  family  near  Spring  Grove  for  the  winter  and 
then  move  West  in  the  spring. 

He  did  not  vouchsafe  an  explanation  or  offer  an 
acknowledgment  of  Powell's  good-will;  and  Powell,  in 
philosophizing  the  fact  to  Ann,  who  had  tried  to  dis 
suade  him  from  approaching  Overdale  with  his  sug 
gestion,  interested  himself  without  rancor  in  the  study 
of  human  nature  which  the  incident  afforded.  He  de- 
cided  that  Overdale  kept  his  moroseness  on  as  a  cloak 
to  hide  the  shame  he  felt  before  him  because  Powell 
knew  the  cause  of  his  baseless  terror  in  the  past.  The 
fight  against  this  terror  had  drawn  out  the  man's 
strength,  and  he  could  have  died  valiantly  fighting, 
but  his  rescue  had  left  him  cowed.  While  the  fore 
boding  remained  his  secret  he  could  keep  his  self- 
respect,  but  when  it  became  known  he  could  not  con 
tinue  without  humiliation  in  the  presence  of  the  man 
who  shared  it.  In  a  sort  of  way  he  was  perhaps  grate 
ful  to  Powell,  and  his  attack  on  Bickler  might  be  taken 
as  an  expression  of  gratitude  which  otherwise  he  could 
not  own.  He  was  like  a  man  who  had  been  dignified 
by  the  vision  of  a  specter  and  then  cast  down  by  finding 
it  a  shadow  or  a  dead  tree.  Or  perhaps  it  was  only  the 

143 


NEW    LEAF    MILLS 

man's  nature  to  be  surly  and  to  find  a  supreme  satis 
faction  in  thwarting  an  expectation  of  friendliness ;  he 
was  merely  fulfilling  the  design  of  the  Power  which 
makes  ugliness  and  makes  beauty  by  the  same  creative 
impulse. 

Powell  allowed  this  possibility,  which  Ann,  in  lan 
guage  less  psychological,  suggested  when  she  said  she 
was  glad  that  he  was  to  have  nothing  to  do  with  the 
sulky  wretch,  and  hoped  that  now  he  would  not  try  to 
make  anything  of  him  again.  She  did  not  otherwise 
betray  her  satisfaction  in  an  event  which  took  from 
Powell  his  last  hope  of  remaining  at  New  Leaf  Mills. 
She  realized  too  keenly  the  disappointment  which  she 
could  not  share,  and  she  tried  to  make  her  gradual 
preparations  for  leaving  the  place  as  tacit  as  possible. 
Yet  of  course  they  could  not  be  carried  on,  or  even 
fairly  begun,  without  his  knowledge  and  connivance, 
and  when  she  found  him  going  about  the  wonted  routine 
as  if  he  were  always  to  go  about  it  she  felt  the  necessity 
of  coming  to  open  terms.  For  a  while  she  watched  him 
dreamily  denying  by  his  actions  the  situation  which 
his  thoughts  must  have  owned,  and  then  she  spoke. 

"  I  know  you  hate  to  go,  Owen,"  she  said  one  evening, 
when  he  came  in  from  a  walk  with  the  children  and 
was  building  a  fire  on  the  parlor  hearth. 

He  looked  round,  with  his  face  still  hidden  from 
her  by  the  blaze  behind  his  head.  "  To  go  ?" 

"  Surely  you  don't  think  we  can  keep  on  staying 
here?" 

He  sank  back  upon  his  heels  where  he  knelt.  "  ~No, 
certainly  not.  But  I  see  no  occasion  for  hurry.  If 
David  should  decide  to  come,  perhaps  we  could  ar 
range — " 

"  !N"o,  we  couldn't,  Owen,  and  you  know  it  well 
enough.  This  house  wouldn't  be  big  enough  for  both 

144 


NEW    LEAF    MILLS 

families — let-  alone  the  living  from  the  mills.  Oh, 
don't  you  see,  my  dear,  that  we  have  got  to  go  whether 
David  comes  here  or  not  ?" 

"  Yes,"  he  said,  so  dispiritedly  that  she  had  hardly 
the  heart  to  press  on,  as  she  knew  she  must.  "  I  sup 
pose  so." 

"  Don't  you  know  so  ?" 

"  I  know  it,  but  I  don't  realize  it.  I  will  try  to 
realize  it,  my  dear,"  he  said. 

"  You  must  at  once,"  she  persisted.  "  Richard  and 
I,  here,  have  been  talking  it  over,  and  I  want  you  to 
let  him  go  down  to  the  City  and  look  round  for  some 
thing  you  can  get  hold  of.  He  has  such  good  business 
faculty  I  know  he  can  find  something.  We  don't  see 
why  you  shouldn't  get  hold  of  the  New  Church  book 
store — " 

"  Ann,"  he  said,  and  he  got  to  his  feet  as  he  spoke, 
"  I  thought  of  that  the  instant  you  spoke  of  the  City. 
It  is  strange  that  the  same  thing  should  have  been  in 
both  of  our  minds  at  once,"  he  said,  tasting  the  mystical 
quality  of  the  fact. 

"  Yes,  it  is,"  she  owned,  glad  of  his  interest,  even 
though  it  was  so  far  from  a  practical  interest. 

"  Perhaps,"  he  said,  "  it  was  an  influx  from  the 
spiritual  world  in  both  our  minds.  We  must  act  upon 
it,"  he  continued,  with  increasing  energy;  and  that 
night  he  took  the  matter  up  with  Richard  and  Ann. 
"  Yes,"  he  concluded,  as  he  rose  to  wind  the  clock, 
"  the  outlook  is  very  hopeful.  You  could  get  some 
thing  to  do,  Dick,  until  I  could  work  you  into  the 
business,  or  perhaps  I  should  need  you  from  the  start ; 
certainly  I  should  want  your  help  for  a  while.  I  have 
an  idea  that  a  New  Church  periodical  of  some  sort 
could  be  made  to  pay."  Ann  looked  a  little  troubled 

at  this  conjecture,  but  she  would  not  discourage  it. 

145 


NEW    LEAF    MILLS 

"  As  jet  we  have  nothing  west  of  the  Alleghanies  in 
the  way  of  a  periodical.  And  in  that  event  I  should 
certainly  require  your  help,  Dick.  You  could  solicit 
subscriptions  and  advertising."  He  planned  it  vividly 
out.  Then  as  he  paused,  with  the  shovel  in  his  hand 
before  covering  the  fire  for  the  night,  he  asked,  "  When 
do  you  think  he  had  better  start,  Ann  ?" 

"  Why,  the  sooner  the  better,"  she  said.  "  I  could 
get  him  ready  by  to-morrow  afternoon,  poor  boy;  he 
hasn't  so  much  to  take  with  him.  He  could  walk  to 
Spring  Grove  and  take  the  railroad  cars  for  the  City 
there." 

"  I  don't  know  about  the  sinews  of  war,"  Powell 
mused,  feeling  in  his  pocket  and  finding  a  silver  dollar 
there.  "  I  declare,  I  hadn't  realized  since  I  left  Tusk- 
ingum  that  we  were  poor!  We  shall  realize  it  more 
and  more,  Ann,  in  the  City.  We  have  been  rich  here, 
for  we  haven't  wanted  anything;  we  shall  have  many 
wants  there.  I  suppose  a  dollar  wouldn't  go  far  there 
even  with  Dick ;  the  hotels  are  a  dollar  a  day." 

"  Oh,  if  you  are  going  to  look  at  it  in  that  light !" 
Ann  lamented. 

"  I'm  not.  Walters  has  been  talking  about  buying 
our  pigs.  I  could  send  word  in  the  morning,  and  if 
he  pays  cash  in  part  we  can  start  Dick  off  like  a  prince 
with  five  dollars  in  his  pocket." 

"  And  I'm  not  afraid  but  what  I  can  get  something 
to  do  while  I'm  looking  up  the  business  for  you,  father," 
Dick  said.  "  If  Uncle  Ben's  boat  happens  to  be  in,  I 
can  stay  on  that  till  she  goes  out." 

"  That  is  true,"  Powell  admitted.  "  Well,  we  will 
see  what  a  night  brings  forth,"  and  now  he  covered  the 
fire. 


XXIII 

THE  farmer  who  wanted  the  pigs  had  not  changed 
his  mind  about  them,  but  he  had  changed  his  mind 
about  the  price  and  about  the  amount  of  cash  which  he 
would  pay  when  he  came  to  look  them  over  in  the 
morning,  so  that  in  the  afternoon  Dick  started  for  the 
City  with  three  dollars  and  seventy-five  cents  in  his 
pocket;  it  seemed  to  him  a  good  deal,  and  he  regarded 
it  as  capital  which  would  readily  multiply.  His  heart 
was  full  of  the  hope  of  adventure,  and  he  walked  along 
with  his  brother,  the  Dreamer,  toward  Spring  Grove. 
His  brother  thought  it  would  be  fine  to  tell  about  the 
adventures  which  Dick  thought  it  would  be  fine  to  have ; 
and  that  was  the  great  difference  between  them.  They 
were  sorry  to  part,  but  the  younger  would  not  have 
gone  with  Dick  if  he  could.  When  they  came  to  the 
point  where  they  had  agreed  that  he  was  to  turn 
back  neither  of  them  had  any  thought  of  his  going 
farther.  They  kissed  each  other  in  the  fashion  of  their 
childhood,  and  then  Dick  kept  on,  and  his  brother  stood 
a  moment  watching  him  in  the  pale  afternoon  light  of 
the  early  November  day  and  wondering  how  it  would 
feel  to  be  going  off  in  the  night  to  a  place  where  he 
knew  no  one.  He  dreamed  instantly  an  awful  dream 
of  himself  in  the  supposed  case,  but  he  did  not  notice 
that  Dick  had  no  overcoat  and  no  precaution  against  a 
change  of  weather  except  the  comforter  he  wore  string 
ing  from  his  shoulders.  He,  no  more  than  his  father, 

knew  that  they  were  poor,  and  Dick  did  not  mean  to 

147 


NEW    LEAF    MILLS 

be  poor  for  more  than  a  day  or  two,  if  there  was  any 
faith   in   adventure.      He   carried   a   little   linen   bag 
which  his  mother  had  made  and  put  in  it  a  shirt  and 
two   pairs   of  home-knit   socks   for   his   sole   baggage. 
After  he  rounded  the  southern  slope  of  the  hill,  which 
hid  the  new  house  from  sight,  he  came  to  the  Bladens 
house,  with  the  orchard  next  the  road.     Dick  thought 
he  would  get  over  the  fence  and  pick  up  an  apple^or 
two     When  he  put  his  hands  on  the  top  rail  to  spring 
over,  he  saw  Lizzie  Bladen  under  the  best  tree.     She 
came  toward  the  fence  with  one  of  the  apples  in  her 
hand;  and  he  thought  her  coloring  was  like  the  apple 
she  held  out  to  him— the  ivory,  almost  sallow    white 
of  the  bellflower,  brightened  by  her  gentle  dark  eyes. 
"  Don't  you  want  it  ?" 

He  took  it  absently.  "  I'm  going  to  the  City  he 
explained,  as  if  his  equipment  needed  explanation  f 

'  "I  heard  so,"  the  girl  answered,  looking  down  at 
the  foot  she  was  pushing  against  a  tuft  of  grass. 

Then  neither  of  them  spoke  until  Dick  said  at  last, 
"  Thank  you  for  the  apple,  Lizzie." 

"  You're  entirely  welcome.    Would  you  like  more 

"  No  this  will  be  plenty."  Somehow  it  seemed  now 
as  if  more  apples  would  spoil  her  gift.  <  Well,  I  must 
be  going,  Lizzie." 

"  Good-by,  Dick." 

Cither  Jould  say  more ;  and  it  was  the  last  time  they 
saw  each  other. 

For  the  rest  of  the  family  the  days  began  to  go  with 

a  sort  of  eager  swiftness.     The  children  were  on  fire 

.  with  wild  notions  of  the  City ;  but  the  father  went  about 

the  usual  work  of  the  place,  overseeing  the  sawmill 

chiefly  and  keeping  a  slighter  supervision  of  the  gru 


148 


NEW    LEAF    MILLS 

miller,  wlio  would  have  resented  more  and  was,  as  he 
sometimes  reminded  Powell,  just  staying  on  to  ac 
commodate. 

That  week  Overdale  had  his  vendue,  and  auctioned 
off  his  pigs  and  poultry,  and  the  larger  household  stuff 
which  he  did  not  care  to  take  away.  It  was  a  stirring 
event  for  the  neighborhood,  and  culminated  in  the  de 
parture  of  the  miller  and  his  family  the  next  day  for 
Spring  Grove  on  the  new  wagon  which  he  had  bought 
to  move  West  in.  The  children  were  scattered  in  dif 
ferent  vantages  of  the  bedding,  and  on  the  top,  in  a 
sort  of  triumph,  rode  the  sloom  deeply  hidden  in  her 
sunbonnet.  The  miller  drove,  and  Powell  thought  that 
as  he  passed  the  new  house  to  cross  the  tail-race  he 
might  stop  to  say  good-by.  But  he  did  not  stop,  and 
Powell  did  not  attempt  to  stay  him.  Ann  watched  his 
passing  with  regret  for  Powell's  letting  him.  "  Don't 
you  think  you'd  better  go  out  and  speak,  Owen  ?" 

"  I've  decided  not.  It's  better  as  it  is — it  might 
afflict  him  to  have  me.  It's  more  in  his  nature  so,  and 
he  can  manage  better." 

"  You  as  good  as  saved  his  life." 

"  Oh,  there  wasn't  the  least  danger  of  his  dying." 

In  those  days  Ann  relented  more  and  more  to  the 
man  whom  she  saw  still  so  little  able  to  realize  their 
situation.  One  morning  she  found  him,  after  seeking 
everywhere  else  for  him,  in  the  empty  log  cabin,  coming 
down  from  the  loft  as  if  he  had  been  looking  the  for 
lorn  place  over.  "  Owen,"  she  accused  him,  "  I  do 
believe  you've  been  seeing  if  this  hovel  would  do  for 
us  if  David  conies  to  live  in  the  new  house." 

He  laughed  in  a  guilty  way.  "  I've  been  seeing  that 
it  would  not  do,"  he  ended,  with  a  sigh. 

"  Oh,"  she  said,  "  if  you  could  only  see  that  the  whole 
place  won't  do,  and  never  would!" 

149 


NEW    LEAF    MILLS 

"  I  dare  say  I  shall  come  to  that/'  he  consented, 
sadly. 

He  moped,  she  felt,  as  the  time  went  by,  and  he 
was  cheerfuler  only  when  some  letter,  full  of  hope 
without  expectation,  came  from  Dick.  The  boy  had  got 
a  temporary  place  in  the  Xew  Church  book-store;  but 
the  business  was  not  for  sale,  and  he  was  looking  for 
something  else.  The  most  discouraging  of  the  letters 
seemed  to  cheer  Powell  most :  he  was  like  a  condemned 
man  to  whom  respite  brings  the  hope  of  reprieve.  That 
vexed  Ann  with  him;  but  she  knew  he  could  not  help 
it,  and  her  heart  ached  for  him.  She  had  always  had 
to  fortify  him  for  his  encounters  with  the  world,  and 
she  understood  how  in  this  retreat  from  it  he  had  felt 
a  safety  and  peace  that  he  had  never  felt  in  its  presence. 
With  her  practical  mind  she  had  not  been  able  to  enter 
into  his  poetic  joy  in  a  return  to  the  simple  things  dear 
to  him  from  his  boyhood,  but  with  her  heart  she  could 
divine  the  anticipative  homesickness  that  now  possessed 
him. 

Late  one  afternoon  the  Dreamer,  who  had  been 
sent  to  Spring  Grove  for  the  mail,  came  back  with  a 
letter  from  Dick,  which  the  mother  tore  open  and  read 
through  with  a  flushing  face,  and  then  looked  about  her 
for  the  father.  He  was  not  in  the  house,  and  she  ran 
to  the  back  door  and  saw  him  stretched  upon  the  hill 
slope  above ;  there,  propped  on  one  elbow,  he  seemed  to 
be  gazing  out  over  the  landscape.  She  started  eagerly 
toward  him,  but  her  steps  grew  slower,  and  she  hid  the 
letter  in  the  pocket  of  her  dress  and  kept  her  hand 
on  it  there  as  if  it  might  escape. 

As  she  came  near  and  nearer  the  gentle  child-hearted 
man,  whom  she  knew  so  brave  and  wise  for  all  high 
occasions,  her  breast  filled  with  worship  and  pity  of 

him,  and  it  seemed  to  her  as  if  she  were  going  to  deal 

150 


NEW    LEAF    MILLS 

him  some  cruel  hurt  with  the  news  she  had.  She 
remembered  how  good  and  patient  he  had  been  through 
the  trials  of  their  life  in  the  squalor  of  that  place,  which 
he  could  have  liked  no  more  than  she ;  how  hard  he  had 
worked;  how  he  helped  her  keep  her  courage  through 
their  common  trials  from  the  rude  conditions  among  the 
rude  neighbors,  in  the  hope  of  bettering  both.  She  re 
membered  the  unselfish  purpose  which  he  had  infused 
into  the  necessity  of  their  coming,  and  how  he  had  not 
chosen  to  come,  but,  being  chosen,  had  sought  for  beauty 
in  their  squalid  lot;  how  he  had  never  repined  at  the 
worst  of  it,  but  with  his  sweet  humor  had  tried  to 
laugh  the  ugliness  away.  She  knew  the  gifts  of  heart 
and  mind  which  needed  only  the  push  of  ambition  to 
make  him  valued  in  the  world,  and  she  blamed  herself 
for  blaming  him  that  he  had  taken  so  modestly  the 
ignorant  ill-will  of  the  clowns  and  savages  about  him. 
She  considered,  swiftly,  as  she  slowed  her  swift  pace, 
that  his  solace  and  reparation  were  in  her  and  in  their 
children,  and  that  he  had  not  cared  for  anything  out 
side  of  his  home  except  for  the  aspect  of  those  fields 
and  woods  which  she  abhorred.  She  perceived  as  never 
before  that  he  loved  the  countenance  of  the  seasons  and 
the  skies,  unvexed  by  the  noise  and  turmoil  of  the  town 
where  he  had  somehow  found  himself  so  unfitted  for  the 
struggle  in  which  she  believed  he  might  have  succeeded. 
She  was  going  now  to  take  him  from  the  simple  things 
of  nature  so  dear  to  him,  and  hurry  him  back  into  the 
town,  and  plunge  him  again  into  the  cares  and  troubles 
which  might  harass  him  into  another  failure.  She 
could  not  bear  it,  and  she  ran  toward  him  with  the 
renunciation  in  her  will  that  took  her  breath  and  made 
her  heart  beat  so  that  she  shook  with  it  as  she  stood 
beside  him. 

"  I  was  just  thinking,  Ann,"  he  said,  smiling  with- 
151 


NEW    LEAF    MILLS 

out  waiting  for  her  to  speak,  "  how  beautiful  this 
prospect  is.  I  suppose  that  in  the  spiritual  world  there 
will  be  scenery  that  will  far  surpass  it ;  in  fact,  accord 
ing  as  our  mood  is  there,  we  shall  create  scenes  of 
heavenly  beauty.  But — but — this  is  dear  because  it  is 
familiar,  because  it  is  like  a  beloved  face,  because  I 
know  it —  Why,  Ann!" 

She  had  sunk  down  beside  him,  and  she  began  to  cry, 
with  her  face  in  her  hands.  He  took  them  down  and 
wiped  away  her  tears  with  his  handkerchief,  as  if  they 
were  young  people  together.  "  What  is  the  matter, 
my  poor  girl  ?" 

She  turned  bravely  upon  him.  "  Owen,"  she  de 
manded,  "  would  you  like  to  stay  here  ?  Because  if 
you  would  I  am  ready  to  stay,  and  I  will  never  say 
another  word  against  the  place.  I  know  we  could  make 
the  log  cabin  do." 

"  Have  you  had  a  letter  from  David  ?  Have  they 
decided  to  come  ?" 

"  No,  it  isn't  from  him.  But  whether  they  come  or 
not  I'm  ready  to  stay.  Don't  you  believe  me,  Owen  ?" 

He  took  the  hand  she  had  put  on  his  knee  and  held 
it  there  in  his  hand.  "  I  believe  you  would  try,  and 
that  is  all  that  is  expected  of  us.  But  we  can't  stay, 
Ann.  The  cabin  is  hardly  fit  for  cattle,  and,  besides, 
how  could  I  carry  on  the  mills  ?  I  have  no  means,  and 
I  realize  that  I  am  unfit  to  deal  with  the  people  about 
here.  I  think  they  are  friendlier  than  they  were,  but 
they  don't  understand  me,  and  I  don't  believe  I've  ever 
understood  them." 

"  They  are  savages !"  Ann  passionately  broke  out. 

"  Oh  no,  oh  no ;  not  quite  so  bad  as  that,  though  they 
are  not  very  polished.  I  fancy  I  can  get  on  better 
with  people  of  a  somewhat  more  advanced  civilization. 

At  any  rate,  I  am  willing  to  make  the  experiment." 

152 


NEW    LEAF    MILLS 

"  Do  you  say  that  because  you  know  I  want  it  1" 

"  I  know  you  want  it,  but  I  don't  say  it  for  that 
reason.  I  rather  want  it  myself  at  times.  This  has 
been  a  beautiful  dream — 

"  Owen,  if  ever  I  said  a  true  word  to  you  in  my  life 
I  am  saying  it  now!  I  want  to  stay  here;  I  want  to 
stay  here,,  and  not  go  to  the  City." 

"  But  you  can't  stay,  Ann ;  that  dream  is  passed,  and 
we  can't  dream  it  over  again." 

"  Then,  there !"  she  said,  and  she  pulled  Richard's 
letter  out  of  her  pocket  and  threw  it  into  his  lap. 
"  Dick  has  got  the  business  for  you.  The  Wilsons 
are  willing  to  give  up  the  store,  and  they  will  take  your 
notes  for  the  stock  and  good-will;  they've  just  heard 
of  a  chance  in  Chicago;  they  say  that's  quite  a  grow 
ing  place,  and  there  are  more  ]N~ew  Church  people 
there.  They  have  been  very  good  to  Dick,  and  they've 
asked  him  to  stay  with  them  till  we  can  come  down 
and  take  hold;  and  now  we  needn't  even  hurry." 

"  I  think,"  Powell  said,  formally,  "that  it  will  be 
better  not  to  lose  any  time,"  and  now  he  lost  none  in 
confirming  himself  in  the  things  she  had  said  from 
Eichard's  letter.  "It  seems  a  good  opportunity,  and 
we  must  not  let  it  slip  through  our  fingers  by  any  sort 
of  delay." 

He  spent  the  evening  in  making  a  box  to  hold  his 
books;  but  he  decided  to  leave  the  harp,  trusting  it  to 
the  fraternal  tenderness  of  David,  in  the  possibility  that 
some  of  David's  children  might  learn  to  play  on  it; 
his  own  had  not,  but  Powell  was  inwardly  aware  that 
he  himself  had  not.  Ann  and  he  sat  up  late  talking 
the  whole  affair  over,  and  it  appeared  to  him  more  and 
more  probable  that  something  in  the  nature  of  a  !N~ew 
Church  periodical  might  succeed  in  connection  with  the 
book-store. 

153 


NEW    LEAF    MILLS 

When  they  were  settled  in  the  City  he  was  patient 
with  the  reasons  which  his  New  Church  friends  urged 
against  the  scheme.  He  had  known  some  of  them 
before,  and  he  found  them  very  agreeable  and  cultivated 
men.  They  were  rather  conservative  in  some  things, 
but  Powell  himself,  while  holding  fast  to  the  funda 
mental  principles  of  justice  in  politics,  now  confined 
his  assertion  of  them  to  aiding  the  escape  of  fugitive 
slaves  from  Kentucky,  whom  he  enjoyed  hiding  in  the 
basement  of  his  store,  till  he  could  forward  them 
to  some  other  underground  station.  He  did  not  re 
linquish  the  ideal  of  a  true  state  of  things  which  he 
and  his  brothers  had  hoped  to  realize  at  New  Leaf 
Mills,  but  he  was  inclined  to  regard  the  communistic 
form  as  defective.  The  communities  of  Robert  Owen 
had  everywhere  failed  as  signally  as  that  of  New  Leaf 
Mills,  which  indeed  could  scarcely  be  said  to  have 
passed  the  embryonic  stage.  But  he  argued,  not  so 
strenuously  as  he  used  to  argue  things,  but  as  formally, 
that  if  some  such  conception  of  society  could  possess  the 
entire  State,  a  higher  type  of  civilization  would  un 
doubtedly  eventuate. 


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